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THE 


THEOLOGICAL  WORKS 


THOMAS     PAINE, 


SECRETABT     TO     THE     COMMITTEE     OF    FOHEIGN    AFFAIRS     jy      THE 
AMERlCAPiT    REVOLUTION. 


THE  MOST  COMPLETE  EDITION  EVER  PUBLISHED. 


J.   P.  MENDUM, 
INVESTIGATOR    OFFICE 
BOSTON. 

1859. 


BL 


CONTENTS. 


Preface                                                -           •                          •  iii 
Age  of  Reason,  Part  1st,           •           ■                                  -IS 

. Part  2d.             -                    ...  68 

Letter  to  a  Friend            ...                -                  -  161 

• to  the  Hon.  T.  Erskine,  on  the  prosecution  of 

Thomas  Williams  for  publishing  the  Age  of  Reason  165 

Discourse  to  the  Society  of  Theophilanthropists                        •  195 

Letter  to  Camille  Jordan               -                    ...  SOS 

Essay  on  Dream            -            -            -            -                        -  219 

Examination  of  passages  in  tlie  New  Testament    •                -  227 

Thoughts  on  a  future  state                          .            -                   -  273 

Reply  to  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff            -            -                        -  275 

Origin  of  Free-Masonry                    -            -    '        -                -  301 

Letter  to  Samuel  Adams           -                    .                              -  332 

to  Andrew  A.  Dean           ...                  .  329 

Miscellaneous  Pieces            -            -                        ■                  •  332 

POETICAL. 

Song — Hail  Great  Republic,     -            -            ...  3 

Boston  Patriotic  Song,                -             -             _             i.             .  4 

Song — To  Columbia,  &c.         -             -            ...  6 

Death  of  General  Wolfe,           -----  8 

Song — Liberty  Tree,                  -             -             -             ,             _  9 

Impromptu  on  Bachelor's  Hall,                          -            -            -  10 

Farmer  Short's  Dog  Porter,      -             -             -             -         .    _  U 

Impromptu  on  a  Long-nosed  Friend,                 -             -             -  15 

The  Snow  Drop  and  Critic,  a  Dialogue,           -            -            -  16 

Address  to  Lord  Howe,              -            .            -            .             -  18 
What  is  Love  ?              --....20 

From  the  Castle  in  the  Air,  to  the  Little  Corner  of  the  World,  21 

Contentment;  or,  if  you  please,  Confession,    -            -            -  23 

Lines  Extempore,  July,  1808,               -            -            -            -  24 

Letter  to  George  Washington,               -            -            .            .  3 

Letters  to  the  Citizens  of  the  United  States,     -            -            -  45 

Will  of  Thomas  Paine,             -----  93 

Epitaph  for  the  Tomb  of  Paine,  by  a  Friend,               -            -  96 


f\n*lii-'ii  OQ-ft 


CONTENTS. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Case  of  the  Officers  of  the  Excise,       -            -  _  -  3 

Petition  to  the  Board  of  Excise,             -            -  -  -  16 

Letter  to  Dr.  Goldsmith,            -----  17 

Introduction  to  the  Pennsylvania  Magazine,     -  -  -  18 

Cupid  and  Hymen,      ------  19 

Anecdote  of  Lord  Malmsbury,               -             -  -  -  22 

Letter  to  a  friend,          ------  23 

Mathematical  Question  proposed,         -            -  -  '        -  24 

Description  of  a  new  Electrical  Machine,         -  -  -  25 

New  Anecdotes  of  Alexander  the  Great,            -  -  -  28 

Letter  to  Thomas  Clio  Rickman,          -             -  -  -  30 

Reflections  on  the  Life  and  Death  of  Lord  Clive,  -  -  31 

Letter  to  a  Friend  in  Philadelphia,       -             -  -  -  36 

Letter  to  Sir  George  Staunton,  on  Iron  Bridges,  -  -  38 

Preface  to  General  Lee's  Memoirs,       -            -  -  -  46 

To  Forgetfulness,          ------  48 

Letter  to  a  Gentleman  at  New  York,   -;            -  -  -  55 

Essay  on  the  Yellow  Fever,                  -            -  .  -  57 

Letter  to  a  Friend,        -            -             -            .  .  .64 

Address  and  Declaration           -                          -  -  -  65 

On  the  Construction  of  Iron  Bridges,                -  -  -  69 

Useful  and  Entertaining  Hints,    -        -            -  -  -  75 

On  the  Utility  of  Magazines,    -            -            -  -  80 

liCtter  to  Elihu  Palmer,             -            .            ,  -  -  85 

Communication  to  the "  Citizen,"        -            -  _  -  86 


PREFACE. 


Had  not  religion  been  made  an  article  of  merchanaise,  and  a 
class  of  men  set  apart  to  retail  it  for  the  benefit  of  themselves, 
the  enormous  evils  that  have  resulted,  would  not  have  occurred. 
As  it  is,  an  opposition  to  the  dogmas  of  a  preacher  of  any  de- 
nomination has  a  direct  tendency,  by  lowering  his  tenets  in  the 
estimation  of  the  public,  to  depreciate  the  profits  of  his  trade. 
In  self  defence,  therefore,  he  turns  upon  the  assailant,  and  ap- 
pHes  to  him  names  to  which  he  attaches  opprobrious  meanings, 
such  as  heretic,  infidel,  &c.  Heretic,  however,  in  the  literal 
sense  of  the  term,  means  simply  a  person  who  entertains  an 
opinion  on  doctrinal  points  of  religion  contrary  to  the  generally 
received  opinion,  at  any  particular  period.  Thus  the  catholics, 
by  way  of  reproach,  denominate  the  protestants  heretics,  and  the 
protestants,  in  their  turn,  apply  the  same  epithet  to  universalists 
and  unitarians.  The  late  Rev.  John  Mason,  to  show  his  strong 
disapprobation  of  the  latter  sect,  went  so  far  as  to  declare  to  his 
congregation,  that  he  would  not  disgrace  the  devil  so  much  as  to 
compare  them  to  him. 

As  to  the  term  infidel,  all  sects  are  infidels  to  each  other,  in 
consequence  of  the  discrepance  in  their  respective  tenets,  which 
laymen  have  taken  no  more  part  in  forming  than  in  their  own 
creation.  They  are  made  for  them  by  persons  who  are  paid  for 
their  services,  and  whose  interest  it  is  to  render  them  obscure, 
that  they  may  require  explanation.  As  well,  therefore,  might 
mankind  quarrel  about  their  stature,  as  about  a  difference  of 
opinions  in  the  acquirement  of  which  they  have  been  entirely 
passive,  and  of  the  truth  of  which,  neither  laymen  nor  their 
teachers  can  have  the  least  possible  knowledge. 

The  whole  mystery,  as  before  observed,  of  the  heart  burnings 
and  ill  will  among  Christian  sects,  arises  from  having  made  of 
religion  a  trade  ;  which  has  caused  a  rivalry  and  contention 


among  the  professors  of  the  art  of  soul-saving  that  would  dis- 
grace any  other  business  whatever.  It  is  of  course  the  interest 
of  every  sectarian  preacher  to  draw  after  him  as  many  hearers 
as  possible,  in  order  to  increase  his  emoluments  ;  and  the  means 
naturally  suggested  to  effect  this,  is  to  abuse  and  vilify  all  other 
schemes  of  salvation  but  his  own. 

Thus  have  religious  parties  been  formed,  and  deadly  animosi- 
ties engendered  and  cherished  throughout  Christendom  ever  since 
the  introduction  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  dogmas  ;  and  the 
gibbet  and  the  stake  have  been  appealed  to  as  the  ultimate  rea- 
son of  fanatics.  Well,  therefore,  might  the  venerable  John 
Adams  exclaim,  as  reported  by  Jefferson,  "  This  would  be  the 
best  of  worlds,  if  there  were  no  rehgion  in  it." 

The  only  cure  for  the  evils  of  religion,  the  curse  of  supersti 
tion,  which  has  been  entailed  upon  mankind  by  an  interested 
priesthood,  is  for  every  one  to  think  for  himself,  and  not  pay 
others  to  think  for  him ;  to  reassume  that  common  sense  with 
which  nature  has  endowed  him,  and  of  which  he  has  been  de 
prived  by  his  spiritual  teachers. 

"  We  have,"  says  Jefferson,  (see  Correspondence,  vol.  iv.  p. 
322,)  "  most  unwisely  committed  to, the  hierophants  of  our  par- 
ticular superstition,  the  direction  of  public  opinion,  that  lord  of 
th?  universe.  We  have  given  them  stated  and  privileged  days 
to  collect  and  catechise  us,  opportunities  of  delivering  their  ora- 
cles to  the  people  in  mass,  and  of  moulding  their  minds  as  wax 
in  the  hollow  of  their  hands.  But  in  despite  of  their  fulminations 
against  endeavours  to  enlighten  the  general  mind,  to  improve 
the  reason  of  the  people,  and  encourage  them  in  the  use  of  it, 
the  liberality  of  this  state  will  support  this  institution,*  and  give 
fair  play  to  the  cultivation  of  reason." 

The  manner  in  which  ministers  of  the  gospel  are  got  up,  is 
worthy  a  passing  notice.  Young  men  who  receive  a  collegiate 
education,  are  governed  in  the  choice  of  business',  by  the  advice 
of  parents,  the  opinion  they  entertain  of  the  abilities  they  pos- 
sess, or  the  apparent  prospect  of  the  greatest  gain  in  either  of 
the  learned  professions,  without  regard  to  their  religious  propen- 
sities. Those  who  determine  on  divinity,  in  the  last  year  of 
their  term  at  college,  hold  conference  meetings,  and  exercise 
themselves  in  the  art  of  praying,  and  in  disquisitions  on  religion 

Divines  thus  formed,  can  readily  accommodate  their  religion 
to  circumstances.  If  they  find  the  pulpit  overstocked  in  the 
persuasion  in  which  they  were  educated,  they  often  change  their 
opinion,  and  adopt  another  creed.  There  are  several  instances 
in  this  city,  of  young  men,  who  were  educated  presbyterians, 
becoming  episcopal  clergymen,  in  consequence,  as  they  declared 
to  intimate  friends,  of  that  church  paying  better  than  the  one 
they  abandoned.     Men  of  liberal  education,  who  have  gained 

*  The  University  of  Charlottesville,  in  Virginia,  of  which  Mr.  Jefferson 
was  the  founder. 


PREFACE.  V 

some  knowledge  of  the  frauds  of  religion,  can  easier  change 
their  creeds  than  sincere  devotees  who  are  duped  by  them. 

And  what  does  their  preaching  amount  to  1  What  is  the  mighty 
boon  obtained,  as  is  said,  by  the  excruciating  sufferings  even  of 
a  God  ;  the  glad  tidings  trumpeted  forth  by  divines,  and  hailed 
with  great  joy  by  their  grateful  hearers  1  What  is  it,  but  'that  a 
very  small  portion  of  the  human  species  will  be  made  happy  in 
another  life,  and  that  the  remainder  will  be  roasted,  in  a  brim- 
stone fire,  to  all  eternity  ?  Are  these  glad  tidings  1  Are  they 
not  rather  to  be  deprecated  as  the  tidings  of  damnation  1  Shall 
human  reason  be  tortured  for  arguments  in  proof  of  a  doctrine 
so  abhorrent  to  justice  and  humanity  ;  so  abhon-ent  to  any  ration- 
al idea  that  can  be  conceived  of  a  Creator,  and  of  every  principle 
of  right  and  ^vrong  established  among  men  ]  The  chances  in 
this  lottery  of  life  and  death,  according  to  the  statements  of  the- 
ologians, are  at  least,  a  thousand  to  one  against  every  living  soul ; 
and  yet  the  scheme  is  cherished  as  an  infinite  benefit  to  mankind. 
And  what  are  the  alleged  causes  that  involved  the  human  race 
in  this  shocking  predicament  ?  Why,  that  a  woman  in  some  age 
of  the  world,  nobody  knows  when  or  where,  eat  an  apple,  or 
some  other  fruit,  contrary  to  the  commands  of  her  Maker. 

"  The  very  head  and  front  of  her  offendmg 
Hath  this  extent,  no  more." 

Upon  this  pitiful  story,  the  whole  foundation  of  priestcraft  is 
laid.  It  is  followed  up  with  the  sacrifice  of  a  god  to  atone  for 
the  monstrous  offence  of  poor  Eve  ;  and  then  comes  the  great 
benefit  of  the  boasted  atonement ;  which,  by  the  way,  is  to  pro- 
cure salvation  only  for  those  who  had  been  previously  elected 
for  that  purpose  ;  and  who  are  coerced  into  the  true  faith  through 
the  instrumentality  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  without  the  least  claims 
on  account  of  their  own  merits  ;  whilst  the  rest,  who  could  be 
no  more  implicated  in  the  faux  pas  of  the  first  pair  than  the 
former,  are  debarred  that  favour  by  an  absolute  decree.  "  With- 
out controversy,  great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness." 

It  is  matter  of  surprise  that  any  person,  who  believes  in  the 
existence  of  a  Supreme  Being,  should  have  the  hardihood  to  at- 
tribute to  him  such  deliberate  cruelty,  such  pitiful  subterfuge, 
such  palpable  mockery  of  justice  t 

All  clergymen  deem  themselves  to  be  numbered  among  the 
elect,  and  are  so  considered  by  their  followers  ;  and  that  the  bulk 
of  their  congregations  are  doomed  to  perdition.  In  this  point  of 
view,  it  is  heart-rending  for  a  man  of  sense  and  feeling  to  wit- 
ness with  what  sang  froid,  and  cruel,  I  had  almost  said  savage 
exultation,  they  expatiate  upon  the  tortures  of  the  damned  ; 
whilst  their  hearers,  as  tame  and  passive  as  lambs,  listen  with 
reverential  awe  and  respect,  and  appear  to  acquiesce  in  the  just- 
ness of  their  condemnation.  In  fact,  the  members  of  presbyte- 
rian  congregations,  in  general,  would  not  like  their  minister  if  he 


did  not  preach  hell  fire  as  the  just  reward  of  their  backslidingg, 
and  want  of  faith  and  zeal  in  the  cause  of  Christ ;  and  in  default 
thereof,  would  change  him  for  another  ihore  orthodox.  As  is 
required,  they  profess  a  willingness  to  be  damned,  provided 
nevertheless,  that  the  glory  of  God  shall  be  thereby  enhanced. 

The  following  are  fair  samples  of  the  eternal  ding-dong  upon 
this  subject,  with  which  calvinistic  divines  regale  their  hearers. 

The  late  Dr.  Jonathan  Edwards,  (whose  writings  are  highly 
applauded  by  the  English  reviewers,  who  seem  to  consider  it 
their  interest  to  commend  those  whose  aim  is  to  stupify  and 
besot  the  minds  of  the  people,)  in  a  sermon  on  the  duration  and 
torments  of  hell,  says, 

"  Be  entreated  to  consider  attentively  how  great  and  aAvful  a 
thing  Eternity  is.  Although  you  cannot  comprehend  it  the  more 
by  considering,  yet  you  may  be  made  more  sensible  that  it  is  not 
a  thing  to  be  disregarded.  Do  but  consider  what  it  is  to  suffer 
extreme  pain  for  ever  and  ever  ;  to  suffer  it  day  and  night,  from 
one  day  to  another,  from  one  year  to  another,  from  one  age  to 
another,  from  one  thousand  ages  to  another ;  and  so  adding  age 
to  age,  and  thousands  to  thousands,  in  pain,  in  wailing  and  tor- 
menting, groaning  and  shrieking,  and  gnashing  your  teeth  ;  with 
your  souls  full  of  dreadful  grief  and  amazement,  with  your  bodies, 
and  every  member  of  them,  full  of  racking  torture  ;  without  any 
possibility  of  getting  ease ;  without  any  possibility  of  moving 
God  to  pity  by  your  cries  ;  without  any  po&sil)ility  of  hiding 
yourselves  from  him  ;  without  any  possibility  of  diverting  your 
thoughts  from  your  pain  ;  without  any  possibility  of  obtaining 
any  manner  of  mitigation,  or  help,  or  change  for  the  better. 
How  disniijl  will  it  be,  when  you  are  und,er  these  racking  tor- 
ments, to  know  assuredly  that  you  never,  never  shall  be  deliver- 
ed from  them." — "  The  saints  in  glory  will  be  far  more  sensible 
how  dreadful  the  ^vrath  of  God  is,  and  will  better  understand 
how  terrible  the  sufferings  of  the  damned  are,  yet  this  will  be  no 
occasion  o(  grief  to  them,  but  rejoicing.  They  will  not  be  sorry 
for  the  damned  ;  it  will  cause  no  uneasiness  or  dissatisfaction  to 
them,  but,  on  the  contrary,  when  they  see  this  sight  it  will  occa 
sion  rejoicing  and  excite  them  to  joyful  jyraises." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Emmons,  of  Massachusetts,  distinguished  for 
his  piety  and  biblical  knowledge,  gives  the  following  lively  de- 
scription of  the  joys  of  the  elect,  contrasted  with  the  sufferings 
of  the  reprobated : 

•'  The  happiness  of  the  elect  in  heaven  will  in  part  consist  in 
witnessing  the  torments  of  the  damned  in  hell,  and  among  these 
it  may  be  their  own  children,  parents,  husbands,  wives,  and 
friends  on  earth. 

"  One  part  of  the  business  of  the  blessed  is  to  celebrate  the 
doctrine  of  reprobation.  While  the  decree  of  reprobation  is  ex- 
ternally executing  on  the  vessels  of  wrath,  the  smoke  of  their 
torment  will  be  eternally  ascending  in  the  view  of  the  vessels  of 


rUEFACE. 


mercy,  wlio  instead  of  taking  the  part  of  those  misemhle  objects^ 
will  say  amen,  hallelujah,  praise  the  Lord. 

"  When  the  saints  shall  see  how  great  the  misery  is  from 
which  God  hath  saved  them,  and  how  great  a  difference  he  hath 
made  between  their  state,  and  the  state  of  others  who  were  by 
nature,  and  perhaps  by  practice,  no  more  sinfid  and  ill-deserving 
than  they,  it  will  give  them  more  a  sense  of  the  wonderfulness 
of  God's  grace  to  them.  Every  time  they  look  upon  the  damn- 
ed, it  will  excite  in  them  a  lively  and  admiring  sense  of  the  grace 
of  God  in  making  them  so  to  differ.  The  sight  of  hell  torments 
will  exalt  the  happiness  of  the  saints  for  ever.'' 

Dr.  Parish,  of  the  same  state,  in  a  sermon  delivered  in  the 
time  of  our  late  war  with  England,  in  denunciation  of  his  coun- 
trymen who  rendered  it  their  support,  exclaimed,  "  How  will 
the  supporters  of  this  anti-christian  warfare  endure  their  sen- 
tence, endure  their  o^vn  reflections  ;  endure  the  fire  that  for  frer 
burns.:  the  worm  that  never  dies  ;  the  hosannas  of  neaven.  w&jie 
the  smoke  of  their  torments  will  ascend /or  ever  and  ever  /" 

Notwithstanding  the  confidence  and  apparent  self-security  in 
which  presbyterian  mimsters  an:i:2a«iVji!.  upon  the  vindictive  spirit 
of  the  Almighty,  and  the  horrors  of  that  hell,  which,  according  to 
them,  he  has  prepared  for  the  reception  of  the  greatest  portion 
of  his  creatures,  if  reliance  can  be  had  upon  the  view  taken  of 
the  means  necessary  for  salvation  bv  the  late  Bishop  Hobart, 
their  conden-Liaaon  is  inevitable . 

The  grand  panacea  for  the  cure  of  all  evil,  and  the  restoration 
of  man  to  the  favour  of  the  Deity,  seems,  with  the  bishop,  to 
consist  in  the  due  administration  &f  the  rite  of  baptism.  In  his 
Companion  to  the  Altar,  he  says  : 

"  In  this  church,  the  body  which  derives  nle,  strenstn  and 
salvation  from  Christ  its  head,  baptism  was  instituted  as  tne  sa- 
cred rite  of  admission.  In  this  regenerating  ordinance,  fallen 
man  is  born  again  from  a  state  of  condemnation  to  a  state  of 
grace.  He  obtains  a  title  to  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  to  all  those  precious  and  immortal  bless- 
ings which  the  blood  of  Christ  purchased."  Com.  for  the  Allar, 
ed.  1824,  p.  186. 

"  Wherever  the  gospel  is  promulgated,  the  only  mode  through 
which  we  can  obtain  a  title  to  those  blessings  and  privileges 
which  Christ  has  purchased  for  his  mystical  body,  the  church,  is 
the  sacrament  of  baptism.  Repentance,  faith,  and  obedience,  will 
not  of  themselves  be  effectual  to  our  salvation.  We  may  sin- 
cerely repent  of  our  sins — heartily  believe  the  Gospel ;  we  may 
walk  in  the  paths  of  holy  obedience  :  but  until  we  enter  into 
covenant  with  God  by  baptism,  and  ratify  our  vows  of  allegiance 
and  duty  at  the  holy  sacrament  of  the  Supper — commemorate 
the  mysterious  sacrifice  of  Christ,  we  cannot  assert  any  claim  to 
salvation."     lb.  pp.  IS9 — 90. 


"  In  order  to  be  effectual,  to  be  acknowledged  by  God,  and 
accompanied  by  his  power,  they  (the  sacraments)  must  be  ad- 
ministered by  those  who  have  received  a  commission  for  the 
purpose  from  him." — "  None  can  possess  authority  to  adminis- 
ter the  sacraments  but  those  who  have  received  a  commission 
from  the  bishops  of  the  church." — "  Great  is  the  guilt  and  im- 
minent the  danger  of  those  who  negligently  or  wilfully  continue 
in  a  state  of  separation  from  the  authorised  ministrations  of  the 
church,  and  participate  of  ordinances  administered  by  an  irregu- 
lar and  invalid  authority" — "  wlfully  rending  the  peace  and  unity 
of  the  church,  by  separating  from  the  administration  of  its  au- 
thorised priesthood  ;  obstinately  contemning  the  means  which 
God  has  prescribed  for  their  salvation.  They  are  guilty  of  re- 
hellion  against  the  almighty  Lawgiver  and  Judge  ;  they  expose 
themselves  to  the  awful  displeasure  of  that  almighty  Jehovah, 
who  will  not  suffer  his  institutions  to  be  contemned,  or  his  au- 
thority violated,  with  impunity."     Ih.  pp.  198 — 200  :  203 — 4. 

This  is  all  fair  as  a  matter  of  trade.  The  rivalry  for  adher- 
ents  constantly  carried  on  among  the  various  denominations  of 
Christians,  justifies  every  divine  in  endeavouring  to  draw  as 
many  gurlls  to  his  shop  as  possible  ;  and  the  end  must  sanctify 
the  means. 

From  this  nonsense,  advanced  even  by  wise  men,  with  a  view 
of  promoting  their  interests,  it  is  pleasant  to  turn  to  the  writings 
of  philosophers  who  have  not  the  same  inducements. 

Thomas  Jefferson  speaks  of  religion  as  every  man  of  common 
sense,  not  under  the  influence  of  early  impressions  before  the 
mind  is  capable  of  distinguishing  right  from  wrong,  thinks  ;  and 
as  every  honourable  man,  who  wishes  to  benefit  his  species, 
ought  to  express  himself. 

The  following  sentiments  are  extracted  from  his  correspond- 
ence with  his  old  revolutionary  colleague,  John  Adams,  whose 
minds  seem  in  perfect  unison  on  the  subject  treated  of ;  both 
must  be  actuated  by  the  purest  motives  of  humanity,  as  no  sinis- 
ter views  could  possibly  be  entertained  at  the  late  period  in  which 
the  letters  were  written. 

"  I  remember  to  have  heard  Dr.  Priestleysay,  that  if  all  Eng- 
land would  candidly  examine  themselves,  and  confess,  they  would 
iind  that  unitarianism  was  really  the  religion  of  all.  It  is  too 
late  in  the  day  for  men  of  sincerity  to  pretend  they  believe  in  the 
Platonic  mysticisms  that  three  are  one,  and  one  is  three ;  and 
yet  that  the  one  is  not  three,  and  the  three  are  not  one  :  to  divide 
mankind  by  a  single  letter  into  homooiisians  and  homoiousians. 
But  this  constitutes  the  craft,  the  power,  and  the  profit  of  the 
priests.  Sweep  away  their  gossamer  fabrics  of  factitious  reli- 
gion, and  they  would  catch  no  more  flies.  We  should  all  then, 
like  the  Quakers,  live  without  an  order  of  priests,  moralize  for 
ourselves,  follow  the  oracle  of  conscience,  and  say  nothing  about 
what  no  man  can  understand  nor  therefore  beheve  ;  for  I  sup- 


pose  belief  to  be  the  assent  of  the  mind  to  an  intelligible  propo- 
sition."    Vol.  iv.  p.  205. 

"  The  Christian  priesthood,  finding  the  doctrine  of  Christ 
levelled  to  every  understanding,  and  too  plain  to  need  explana- 
tion, saw  in  the  mysticisms  of  Plato,  materials  with  which  they 
might  build  up  an  artificial  system,  which  might,  from  its  indis- 
tinctness, admit  everlasting  controversy,  give  employment  for 
their  order,  and  introduce  it  to  profit,  power,  and  pre-eminence. 
The  doctrines  which  flowed  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  himself  are 
within  the  comprehension  of  a  child  ;  but  thousands  of  volumes 
have  not  yet  explained  the  Platonisms  engrafted  on  them  ;  and 
for  this  obvious  reason,  that  nonsense  can  never  be  explained. 
Their  purposes,  however,  are  answered.  Plato  is  canonized  ; 
and  it  is  now  deemed  as  impious  to  question  his  merits  as  those 
of  an  apostle  of  Jesus."     lb.  p.  242. 

"  The  doctrines  of  Jesus  are  simple,  and  tend  all  to  the  hap- 
piness of  man.  But  compare  with  these  the  demoralizing  dog- 
mas of  Calvin. 

"  1.  That  there  are  three  Gods. — 2.  That  good  works,  oi  the 
love  of  our  neighbour,  are  nothing. — 3.  That  faith  is  every 
thing,  and  the  more  incomprehensible  the  proposition,  the  more 
merit  in  its  faith. — 4.  That  reason  in  religion  is  of  unlawful  use. 
— 5.  That  God,  from  the  beginning,  elected  certain  individuals 
to  be  saved,  and  certain  others  to  be  damned  ;  and  that  no 
crimes  of  the  former  can  damn  them  ;  no  virtues  of  the  latter, 
save. 

"  Now,  which  of  these  is  the  true  and  charitable  Christian  ; 
he  who  believes  and  acts  on  the  simple  doctrines  of  Jesus,  or  the 
impious  dogmatists,  as  Athanasius  and  Calvin  ?"     lb.  p.  349. 

"  The  wishes  expressed  in  your  last  favour,  that  I  may  con- 
tinue in  life  and  health  until  I  become  a  Calvinist,  would  make 
me  immortal.  I  can  never  join  Calvin  in  addressing  his  God. 
He  was  indeed  an  atheist,  which  I  can  never  be  ;  or  rather  his 
religion  was  daemonism.  If  ever  man  worshipped  a  false  God, 
he  did.  The  being  described  in  his  five  points,  is  not  the  God 
whom  you  and  I  acknowledge  and  adore,  the  creator  and  benevo- 
lent governor  of  the  world  ;  but  a  daemon  of  malignant  spirit.  It 
would  be  more  pardonable  to  believe  in  no  God  at  all,  than  to 
blaspheme  him  by  the  atrocious  attributes  of  Calvin.  Indeed,  I 
think  that  every  Christian  sect  gives  a  great  handle  to  atheism  by 
their  general  dogma,  that,  without  a  revelation,  there  would  not 
be  sufficient  proof  of  the  being  of  a  God.  Now,  one-sixth  of 
mankind  only  are  supposed  to  be  Christians  :  the  other  five- 
sixths  then,  who  do  not  believe  in  the  Jewish  and  Christian  rev- 
elation, are  without  a  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  a  God !" 
Jb.  p.  363. 

"  The  result  of  your  fifty  or  sixty  years  of  religious  reading  ia 
the  four  words, '  Be  just  and  good,'  is  that  in  which  all  our  in- 
quiries must  end  ;  as  the  riddles  of  all  the  priesthoods  end  in  four 


X  FREFACE. 

more,  *Ubi  panis,  ibi  deusJ*  "  Ih.  p.  300.  Where  there  is  bread, 
there  is  God.  That  is,  whatever  religion  is  most  conducive 
to  the  interests  of  the  clergy,  that  they  will  preach.  This  is 
what  the  professors  of  every  otner  kmd  of  business  do.  If  any 
community  of  people  should  prefer  five  wheels  to  a  coach,  and 
would  give  high  prices  for  such,  a  coach-maker  would  act  very 
unwisely  to  refuse  to  accommodate  them.  The  clergy  arei 
therefore,  not  so  much  to  blame  as  the  people  who  take  their 
quack  medicines  and  pay  very  dear  for  them..  If  praying  be  of 
any  service,  every  one  knows  what  he  stands  most  in  need  of, 
and  should  therefore  prefer  his  own  petitions,  instead  of  paying 
others  for  doing  it.  And  as  for  moral  instruction,  there  are  cer- 
tainly books  enough  extant  upon  that  subject,  the  cost  of  which 
is  nothing  in  comparison  to  what  is  paid  for  oral  sermons. 

Let  the  people  shake  off  the  shackles  with  which  they  are 
bound  by  the  existing  priestcraft,  and  profess  a  manly  religion, 
founded  upon  moral  virtue  alone,  divested  of  all  creeds,  as  the 
sure  and  only  foundation  of  happiness  here  and  hereafter,  and 
they  would  soon  find  teachers  enough  who  would  accommodate 
themselves  to  their  wishes.  In  this  case,  useful,  scientific  in- 
struction would  form  a  prominent  part  of  the  preacher's  duty. 
How  much  more  pleasant  and  satisfactory  would  such  a  course 
be,  than  in  listening  to  the  eternal  repetition  of  stupid,  unintelli- 
gible dogmas,  which  can  never  be  of  the  least  possible  advan- 
tage. 

The  religious  opinions  of  Jefferson,  Franklin,  John  Adams,  and 
a  host  of  wise  and  good  men  in  Europe  and  America,  differ  in  no 
respect  from  those  of  Thomas  Paine.  Yet  he  has  been  singled 
out  particularly  as  a  mark  for  the  priesthood  to  aim  their  most 
deadly  shafts.  This,  no  doubt,  arose  from  fear  that  his  writings 
would  prove  more  destructive  to  the  craft  than  those  of  other 
liberal  writers,  on  account  of  the  bold,  plain  common  sense  which 
distinguishes  his  compositions. 

Mr.  Paine's  natural  goodness  of  heart  seems  to  have  rendered 
him  sceptical  in  the  prevailing  religious  dogmas,  at  an  early  pe- 
riod. He  says,  "  from  the  time  I  was  capable  of  conceiving  an 
idea  and  acting  upon  it  by  reflection,  I  either  doubted  the  truth 
of  the  Christian  system,  or  thought  it  to  be  a  strange  affair ;  I 
scarcely  know  which  it  was,  but  I  well  remember,  when  about 
seven  or  eight  years  of  age,  hearing  a  sermon  read  upon  the 
Redemption,  by  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God,  After  the  sermon 
was  ended,  I  revolted  at  the  recollection  of  what  I  had  heard  ;  it 
was  to  me  a  serious  reflection,  arising  from  the  idea  I  had,  that 
God  was  too  good  to  do  such  an  action,  and  also  too  almighty  to 
be  under  the  necessity  of  doing  it.  I  believed  in  the  same  man- 
ner to  this  moment." 

Of  Jesus  Christ  he  speaks  in  the  following  terms :  "  The 
morality  that  he  preached  and  practised  was  of  the  most  benevo- 
lent kind;  according  to  his  declarations,  in  the  25th  chapter  of 


Matthew,  he  makes  salvation,  or  the  future  happiness  of  man,  to 
depend  entirely  upon  good  ti-orA-s.  Here  is  nothing  about  pre- 
destination, that  lust  which  some  men  have  for  damning  one  an- 
other. Here  is  nothing  about  baptism,  whether  sprinkling  or 
plunging,  nor  about  any  of  those  ceremonies  for  which  the  Chris- 
tian church  has  been  fighting,  persecuting  and  burning  each  other, 
ever  since  the  Christian  church  began." 

In  another  part,  he  says,  "  My  own  opinion  is,  that  those  whose 
liyes  have  been  spent  in  doing  good,  and  endeavouring  to  make 
their  fellow  mortals  happy,  for  this  is  the  only  way  in  which  we 
can  serve  God,  loill  be  happy  hereafter  :  and  that  the  very  wicked 
will  meet  with  some  punishment.  This  is  my  opinion.  It  is 
consistent  with  my  idea  of  God's  justice,  and  with  the  reason 
that  God  has  given  me." 

Why  should  Mr.  Paine  be  reprobated  for  these  opinions,  and 
the  clergy,  who  proclaim  the  eternal  damnation  of  their  species, 
be  approved  of  and  applauded  1  The  reason  is  plain.  The 
clergy  "  mould  the  minds  of  the  people  like  wax  in  the  hollow  of 
their  hands."  They  well  know,  if  Paine's  principles  prevail, 
their  consequence  and  high  salaries  would  be  at  an  end.  Hence 
the  outcry  against  him  and  those  who  adopt  his  opinions.  King's, 
in  the  first  instance,  created  a  band  of  priests  to  tyrannize  over 
the  mental  faculties  of  man,  that  they  might  the  more  readily 
enslave  him  ;  and  the  American  republic  imbibed  the  malady 
through  a  predisposition  to  infection  inherited  from  their  ances- 
tors. The  business  of  life  is  incorporated  with  priestcraft,  and 
whoever  takes  an  honorable  part  in  vindication  of  truth,  is  sure  to 
meet  with  abuse.  The  doctrine  of  let  us  alone,  is  the  constant 
cry  of  priests,  and  the  fear  of  censure  from  the  pulpit  creates 
and  fosters  the  detestable  crime  of  hypocrisy. 

The  flatteries  and  respect  shown  to  the  clerical  character,  of 
all  denominations,  has  induced  some  of  the  profession  to  adopt  a 
language  towards  their  opponents  truly  astonishing.  In  fact, 
many  preachers  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  seem  to  consider  them- 
selves licenced  calumniators,  and  that  they  have  a  right,  by  vir- 
tue of  their  office,  to  abuse  the  whole  human  race,  as  enemies  to 
God  and  all  righteousness. 

A  few  years  since,  a  young  preacher  of  the  Methodist  connec 
tion  arrived  in  this  country  from  England.  He  laid  great  claims 
to  religious  endowments,  and,  in  consequeftce  of  his  pertness 
and  assurance,  was  highly  caressed  by  the  members  of  his  church. 
Emboldened  by  the  attentions  he  received,  in  order  to  show 
his  zeal  for  the  cause,  he  had  the  effrontery,  at  a  tract  society 
meeting,  to  express  himself  in  the  following  terms :  "  I  thank 
God,  that  the  bones  of  Tom  Paine  have  been  rooted  up,  and  no 
longer  disgrace  the  soil  of  our  country."  No  man  at  the  meeting, 
or  in  the  public  prints  since,  dared  to  reprove  him.  As  a  man  of 
God,  he  Avas  deemed  to  bf-  privileged  to  stigmatize  the  memory 


XU  PREFACK. 

of  one  who  had  so  powerfully  opposed  the  clerical  scheme  of 
eternal  misery. 

The  same  spirit,  which  dictated  the  above  declaration,  is  con- 
spicuous in  an  article  that  lately  appeared  in  the  New-York 
Herald,  supposed  to  be  written  by  an  English  -clergyman  of 
the  Episcopal  church.  It  is  entitled,  "  The  Lone  Tomb  ;  a 
scene  in  Westchester  county."  The  object  of  it  was  to  eulo- 
gize the  virtues  of  a  young  woman  who  died  in  New-Rochelle, 
at  the  age  of  nineteen.  Thomas  Paine,  at  the  mention  of  whose 
name,  the  clergy  were  wont  to  quake,  was  also  dead,  and  had 
been  interred  in  the  same  village.  What  a  glorious  opportunity — 
it  was  irresistible  ;  and  the  pious  parson  improved  it  to  bespatter 
the  tomb  of  the  great  advocate  of  human  rights  ;  the  vindicator 
of  the  justice  and  goodness  of  God  ;  the  opponent  of  the  plead- 
ers for  Calvinistic  fire  and  brimstone.  And,  strange  as  it  may 
appear,  he  fouad  an  American  printer  who  was  enjoying,  in  com- 
mon with  his  countrymen,  the  fruits  of  Paine's  revolutionary  ser- 
vices, indiscreet,  or  shall  I  say,  base  enough  to  lend  his  types  in 
furtherance  of  the  unholy  purpose. 

The  article  concludes  as  follows  :  "  Here  is  found  the  deUght- 
ful  village  where  the  pious,  but  persecuted  Huguenots,  fleeing 
from  oppressions  of  bigotry  and  intolerance,  found  a  quiet  and  a 
happy  home  ;  and  where  too  is  still  pointed  out  the  consecrated 
little  enclosure,  in  which,  when  the  toils  and  suflerings  of  this  life 
were  over,  they  rested  from  their  labors.  And  here,  alas  !  that 
the  place  should  be  known  but  to  be  shunned, — here  is  yet  seen 
the  ruins  of  the  sad  and  forsaken  spot  rendered  infamotis  by  the 
sepulchre  of  the  infidel  Paine  !  /" 

This  consistent  Christian  writer,  in  persecuting  the  memory  of 
Paine,  commits  the  same  outrage  that  he  reprobates  in  others. — 
But,  in  the  one  case,  it  regarded  pious  Huguenots,  Calvinists, 
who  believed  in  hell-fire  ;  in  the  other  an  infidel,  who  was  en- 
deavouring to  wrest  mankind  from  the  clutches  of  the  clergy,  and 
to  render  them  happy,  here  and  hereafter,  by  the  mere  force  of 
moral  virtue.  The  difference,  in  the  view  of  a  minister  of  the 
gospel,  must  be  enormous  indeed. — But  where  were  nine-tenths 
of  these  believing  Huguenots,  according  to  their  own  doctrine, 
after  their  toils  and  sufferings  were  over,  to  rest]  In  hell,  among 
glowing  embers  !  This  is  a  true  statement  of  the  case,  and  I 
leave  the  reader  to  his  own  reflections. 

I  will  mention  one  more  instance  of  clerical  charity  and  for- 
bearance. A  preacher  in  the  Dutch  church,  corner  of  Cedar 
and  Nassau  streets,  lately  gave  vent  to  the  following  rodomon- 
tade :~ 

"  A  deist,  he  said,  was  no  man — he  unmans  himself — he  is 
an  enemy  to  science — denies  all  history,  and  is  a  rebel  to  Jil- 
mighty  God!"  The  last  clause  of  the  sentence  the  speaker  pro- 
nounced with  great  energy,  raising  at  the  same  time  both  hands 
to  heaven.     A  gentleman,  in  company  with  the  reporter,  who 


mistook  declamation  for  argument,  on  leavmg  the  church,  observ- 
ed, that  Mr.  was  a  most  powerful  preacher  ;  and  probably 

this  was  the  opinion  of  the  bulk  of  the  audience.  It  is,  however, 
still  a  mooted  case,  which  is  the  greatest  rebel  to  God,  the  deist 
who  represents  him  as  benevolent,  just  and  merciful ;  or  the  Cal- 
vinistic  divine  who  clothes  him  with  attributes  that  would  dis- 
grace a  savage  ? 

"  The  quality  of  mercy  is  not  strain'd  ; 
It  droppeth,  as  the  gentle  rain  from  heaven 
Upon  the  place  beneath :  it  is  twice  blessed ; 
It  blesseth  him  that  gives,  and  him  that  takes : 
'Tis  mightiest  in  the  mightiest.''^ 

By  the  extracts  I  have  made  from  the  writings  and  speeches  of 
clergymen,  some  might  be  inclined  to  think  them  in  general  a 
very  wicked  class  of  men  ;  but  this  is  by  no  means  the  case. — 
They  are  like  men  in  other  pursuits  of  life,  some  good  and  some 
bad.  The  system  is  more  in  fault,  than  the  professors.  They 
are  hired  to  teach  a  certain  set  of  dogmas,  which  they  cannot  de- 
part from  without  bringing  ruin  upon  themselves.  Were  a  pres- 
byterian  parson,  for  instance,  to  say  to  his  congregation,  that 
God  was  too  benevolent  and  merciful  to  punish  any  of  them  to 
all  eternity ;  that  punishments  would  be  graduated  to  crimes,  and 
that  if  their  lives  were  moral,  they  need  be  in  no  fear  of  incurring 
his  displeasure  on  account  of  their  opinions ;  the  consequence 
would  be  that  every  old  lady  imbued  with  orthodox  principles, 
and  who  had  an  enemy,  on  earth,  that  she  wished  to  be  roasted 
forever,  would  immediately  quit  his  church.  Their  daughters 
would  take  the  same  course,  and  the  men  would  be  compelled  to 
follow  suit.  The  parson,  consequently,  would  be  left  without 
hearers,  and  without  bread.  Let  us  not,  then,  blame  the  clergy, 
but  ourselves.  Old  bigoted  schemes  of  religion  must  be  broken 
down,  and  plain  common  sense  substituted  for  them ;  and  this 
must  be  done  by  laymen — it  is  not  in  the  power  of  the  clergy  to 
effect  it. 

I  will  here  introduce  a  few  appropriate  questions,  propounded 
by  the  celebrated  Voltaire. 

*  Next  to  our  holy  religion,  which  would  be  the  least  excep- 
tionable ?  Would  it  not  be  the  most  simple — that  which  taught 
a  great  deal  of  morality  and  few  doctrines — that  which  tended  to 
make  men  virtuous  without  making  them  fools — that  which  did 
not  impose  the  belief  of  things  impossible,  contradictory,  injuri- 
ous to  the  deity,  and  pernicious  to  mankind  ;  and  which  did  not 
take  on  itself  to  threaten,  with  eternal  punishments,  all  who  had 
common  sense  1  Would  it  not  be  that  which  did  not  support  its 
articles  by  executioners,  and  deluge  the  world  with  blood,  for  un- 
intelligible sophisms  1  Would  it  not  be  that  which  taught  only 
the  adoration  of  one  God,  of  justice,  forbearance  and  humanity?" 

After  all  that  Christian  divines  have  said  of  the  intensity  and 
eternity  of  hell-fire,  to  which,  according  to  them,  the  greater  por- 


tion  of  mankind  are  doomed,  admitting  even,  for  the  sake  of  ar- 
gument, the  authority  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  scriptures,  there 
is  not  a  word  in  those  books  which  designates  the  terrific  place 
represented  by  them.  The  Hebrew  words  Scheol  and  Hades 
which  have  been  translated  hell,  mean  nothing  more,  as  every  Jew 
can  inform  us,  than  the  grave.  The  Gehnmom  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament and  the  Gehenna  of  the  New,  also  translated  hell,  mean 
the  valley  of  Hinnom ;  wherein  the  Israelites  sacrificed  their  chil- 
dren to  the  god  JMoloch  ;  and  where  a  fire  was  continually  burn- 
ing to  consume  the  dead  bodies  of  criminals  to  whom  the  rite  ol 
sepulchre  was  not  granted,  as  well  as  the  filth  of  Jerusalem. 

Moloch  was  a  name  given  to  a  representation  or  emblem  of  the 
sun,  which  was  itself  only  a  symbol  of  the  divinity,  inherited  by 
the  Jews  from  the  Egyptians.  The  fire  in  the  Valley  of  Hin- 
nom, for  the  purposes  before  mentioned,  was  first  established  by 
king  Josiah  about  one  thousand  years  after  the  supposed  death  of 
Moses,  and  was  not  suffered  to  be  extinguished.  The  insects 
which  subsisted  upon  the  garbage  scattered  about  this  valley  were, 
of  course,  never  extinct ;  hence  the  exclamation,  "  Where  the 
icoi'in  dieth  not^  and  the  fire  is  not  quenched  /" 

Tartants,  once  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament,  is  pre-emi- 
nently the  hell  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans,  but  owes  its 
origin  to  Egypt.  The  burying  ground  of  Memphis,  the  ancient 
capital  of  Egypt,  was  on  an  island  called  Elyzout,  decorated  with 
beautiful  groves  and  meadows ;  to  arrive  at  which  it  w^as  necessary 
to  pass  a  small  lake,  on  whose  margin  three  Judges  were  station- 
ed to  examine  into  the  characters  of  the  defunct ;  if  they  proved 
good,  a  passport  was  given  by  them  to  the  ferry-man,  called  Cha- 
ron, to  transmit  the  bodies,  otherwise  they  were  cast  into  a  deep 
pit,  denominated  Tartarus;  from  whence  is  probably  derived  the 
expression  bottomless  pit,  made  use  of  in  the  Apocalypse. 

The  Egyptians  had  an  idea  that  the  soul  after  death  enjoyed  or 
sutfered  with  the  body;  and,  in  this  respect,  the  contrast  betwe^.n 
Elyzout  and  Tartarus  must,  in  their  eyes,  have  appeared  infinite. 

From  this  custom  of  the  Egyptians  have  arisen  the  fables  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  of  the  pleasures  enjoyed  by  those  who  had 
the  good  fortune  to  arrive  at  Elyzout,  or  Elysian  fields,  as  they 
called  it,  and  the  various  torments  inflicted  upon  those  doomed  to 
Tartarus. 

But  it  is  time  for  mankind  to  cease  to  believe  in  fables  ;  to 
cease  to  teach,  or  hear  them  taught,  as  sacred  truths  ;  to  study 
their  real  predicament  in  nature,  and  to  regulate  their  lives  ac- 
cordingly. 

EDITOR. 


THE 


AGE  OF   REASON. 


PART  FIRST. 


FELLOW  CITIZENS 


UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA. 


I  PUT  the  following  work  under  your  protection.  It  contains 
my  opinion  upon  Religion.  You  will  do  mc  the  justice  to  re- 
member, that  I  have  always  strenuously  supported  the  Right  of 
every  Man  to  his  opinion,  however  different  that  opinion  might 
be  to  mine.  He  who  denies  to  another  this  right,  makes  a  slave 
of  himself  to  his  present  opinion,  because  he  precludes  himself 
the  right  of  changing  it. 

The  most  formidable  weapon  against  errors  of  every  kind  is 
Reason.     I  have  never  used  any  other,  and  I  trust  I  never  shall. 

Tour  affectionate  friend  and  fellow  citizen, 

THOMAS  PAINE. 

Luxembourg,  {Paris,)  Sth  Pulviose, 
Second  year  of  the  French  Republic,  one  and  indivisible. 
January  27,  O.  S.  1794. 


THE 

AGE  OF  REASON. 

PART  THE  FIRST. 

BEING  AN  INVESTIGATION  OF  TRUE  AND 
FABULOUS  THEOLOGY. 


It  has  been  my  intention,  for  several  years  past,  to  publish  my 
.houghts  upon  religion ;  I  am  well  aware  of  the  difficulties  that 
attend  the  subject,  and,  from  that  consideration,  had  reserved  it  to 
a  more  advanced  period  of  life.  I  intended  it  to  be  the  last  offer- 
ing I  should  make  to  ray  fellow  citizens  of  all  nations,  and  that  at 
a  time  when  the  purity  of  the  motive  that  induced  me  to  it,  could 
not  admit  of  a  question,  even  by  those  who  might  disapprove  the 
work 

The  circumstance  that  has  now  taken  place  in  France  of  the 
total  abolition  of  the  whole  national  order  of  priesthood,  and  of 
every  thing  appertaining  to  compulsive  systems  of  religion,  and 
compulsive  articles  of  faith,  has  not  only  precipitated  my  inten- 
tion, but  rendered  a  work  of  this  kind  exceedingly  necessary,  lest, 
in  the  general  wreck  of  superstition,  of  false  systems  of  govern- 
ment, and  false  theology,  we  lose  sight  of  morality,  of  humanity, 
and  of  the  theology  that  is  true. 

As  several  of  my  colleagues,  and  others  of  my  fellow-citizens  of 
France,  have  given  me  the  example  of  making  their  voluntary  and 
individual  profession  of  faith,  I  also  will  make  mine ;  and  I  do  this 
with  all  that  sincerity  and  frankness  with  which  the  mind  of  maa 
eommunicates  with  itself. 


12  THE    AGE    or    REASOK.  [FART  I. 

I  teliev*  in  one  God,  and  no  more  ;  and  I  hope  for  happiness 
beyond  this  life. 

I  believe  the  equality  of  man ;  and  I  believe  that  religious  duties 
consist  in  doing  justice,  loving  mercy,  and  endeavouring  to  make 
our  fellow  creatures  happy. 

But,  lest  it  should  be  supposed  that  I  believe  many  other  things 
in  addition  to  these,  I  shall,  in  the  progress  of  this  work,  declare 
the  things  I  do  not  believe,  and  my  reasons  for  not  believing 
them. 

I  do  not  believe  in  the  creed  professed  by  the  Jewish  church,  by 
the  Roman  church,  by  the  Greek  church,  by  the  Turki^5h  church, 
by  the  Protestunt  church,  nor  by  any  church  that  I  know  of.  My 
own  mind  is  my  own  church. 

All  national  institutions  of  churches,  whether  Jewish,  Chris- 
tian, or  Turkish,  appear  to  me  no  other  than  human  inventions, 
set  up  to  terrify  and  enslave  mankind,  and  monopolize  power  and 
profit. 

I  do  not  mean  by  this  declaration  to  condemn  those  who  believe 
otherwise  ;  they  have  the  same  right  to  their  belief  as  I  have  to 
mine.  But  it  is  necessary  to  the  happiness  of  man,  that  he  be 
mentally  faithful  to  himself.  Infidelity  docs  not  consist  in  believ 
ing,  or  in  disbelieving ;  it  consists  in  professing  to  believe  what 
he  does  not  believe. 

It  is  impossible  to  calculate  the  moral  mischief,  if  I  may  so 
express  it,  that  mental  lying  has  produced  in  society.  When  a 
man  has  so  far  corrupted  and  prostituted  the  chastity  of  his  mind, 
as  to  subscribe  his  professional  belief  to  thitigs  he  does  not  be- 
lieve, he  has  prepared  himself  for  the  commission  of  every  other 
crime.  He  takes  up  the  trade  of  a  priest  for  the  sake  of  gain, 
and,  in  order  to  qualify  himself  for  that  trade,  he  begins  with  a 
perjury.  Can  we  conceive  any  thing  more  destructive  to  morality 
than  this  ? 

Soon  after  I  had  published  the  pamphlet,  "  Common  Sense," 
in  America,  I  saw  the  exceeding  probability  that  a  revolution  in 
the  system  of  government  would  be  followed  by  a  revolution  in 
the  system  of  religion.  The  adulterous  connection  of  church 
and  state,  wherever  it  had  taken  place,  whether  Jewish,  Christian, 
or  Turkish,  had  so  effectually  prohibited,  by  pains  and  penalties, 
every  discussion  upon  established  creeds,  and  upon  first  princi- 
ples of  religion,  that  until  the  system  of  government  should  be 


rART  I.J  THE    AGE   OF    REASON.  13 

changed,  those  subjects  could  not  be  brought  fairly  and  openly 
before  the  world  ;  but  that  whenever  this  should  be  done,  a  revo- 
lution in  the  system  of  religion  would  follow.  Human  inven- 
tions and  priest-craft  would  be  detected  ;  and  man  would  return  to 
the  pure,  unmixed,  and  unadulterated  belief  of  one  God,  and  no 
more. 

Every  national  church  or  religion  has  established  itself  by  pre- 
tending some  special  mission  from  God,  communicated  to  certain 
individuals.  The  Jews  have  their  Moses  ;  the  Christians  their 
Jesus  Christ,  their  apostles,  and  saints ;  and  the  Turks  their  Ma- 
nomet,  as  if  the  way  to  God  was  not  open  to  every  man  alike. 

Each  of  those  churches  show  certain  books,  which  they  call  reve- 
lation, or  the  word  of  God.  The  Jews  say,  that  their  word  of  God 
was  given  by  God  to  Moses,  face  to  face  ;  the  Christians  say, 
that  their  word  of  God  came  by  divine  inspiration  ;  and  the  Turks 
say,  that  their  word  of  God  (the  Koran)  was  brought  by  an  angel 
from  Heaven.  Each  of  those  churches  accuse  the  other  of  un- 
belief; and,  for  my  own  part,  I  disbelieve  them  all. 

As  it  is  necessary  to  affix  right  ideas  to  words,  I  will,  before  I 
proceed  further  into  the  subject,  offer  some  other  observations  on 
the  word  revelation.  Revelation  when  applied  to  religion,  means 
something  communicated  immediately  from  God  to  man. 

No  one  will  deny  or  dispute  the  power  of  the  Almighty  to  make 
such  a  communication,  if  he  pleases.  But  admitting,  for  the  sake 
of  a  case,  that  something  has  been  revealed  to  a  certain  person, 
and  not  revealed  to  any  other  person,  it  is  revelation  to  that  person 
only.  When  he  tells  it  to  a  second  person,  a  second  to  a  third,  a 
third  to  a  fourth,  and  so  on,  it  ceases  to  be  a  revelation  to  all  those 
persons.  It  is  revelation  to  the  first  person  only,  and  hearsay  to 
every  other,  and,  consequently,  they  are  not  obliged  to  believe  it. 

It  is  a  contradiction  in  terms  and  ideas,  to  call  any  thing  a 
revelation  that  comes  to  us  at  second-hand,  either  verbally  or  in 
writing.  Revelation  is  necessarily  limited  to  the  first  communi- 
cation— after  this,  it  is  only  an  account  of  something  which  that 
person  says  was  a  revelation  made  to  him ;  and  though  he  may 
find  himself  obliged  to  believe  it,  it  cannot  be  incumbent  on  me 
to  believe  it  in  the  same  manner ;  for  it  was  not  a  revelation  made 
to  mc,  and  I  have  only  his  word  for  it  that  it  was  made  to  him. 

When  Moses  told  the  children  of  Israel  that  he  received  the  tw* 
tables  of  the  commandments  from  the  hands  of  God,  thoy  were 


14  THE    AGE    OF   REASON.  [PART   I. 

not  obliged  to  believe  him,  because  they  had  no  other  authority  for 
it  than  his  telling  them  so  ;  and  I  have  no  other  authority  for  it 
than  some  historian  telling  me  so.  The  commandments  carry  no 
internal  evidence  of  divinity  with  them;  they  contain  some  good 
moral  precepts,  such  as  any  man  qualified  to  be  a  lawgiver,  or  a 
legislator,  could  produce  himself,  without  having  recourse  to 
supernatural  intervention.* 

When  I  am  told  that  the  Koran  was  written  in  Heaven,  and 
brought  to  Mahomet  by  an  angel,  the  account  comes  too  near  the 
same  kind  of  hearsay  evidence  and  second-hand  authority  as  the 
former.  I  did  not  see  the  angel  myself,  and,  therefore,  I  have  a 
right  not  to  believe  it- 

When  also  I  am  told  that  a  woman  called  the  Virgin  Mary, 
said,  or  gave  out,  that  she  was  with  child  without  any  cohabitation 
with  a  man,  and  that  her  betrothed  husband,  Joseph,  said  that  an 
angel  told  him  so,  I  have  a  right  to  believe  them  or  not ;  such  a 
circumstance  required  a  much  stronger  evidence  than  their  bare 
word  for  it ;  but  we  have  not  even  this — for  neither  Joseph  nor 
Mary  wrote  any  such  matter  themselves  ;  it  is  only  reported  by 
others  that  therj  said  so — it  is  hearsay  upon  hearsay,  and  I  do  not 
choose  to  rest  my  belief  upon  such  evidence. 

It  is,  however,  not  difficult  to  account  for  the  credit  that  was 
given  to  the  story  of  Jesus  Christ  being  the  son  of  God.  He 
was  born  when  the  heathen  mythology  had  still  some  fashion  and 
repute  in  the  world,  and  that  mythology  had  prepared  the  people 
for  the  belief  of  such  a  story.  Almost  all  the  extraordinary  men 
that  lived  under  the  heathen  mythology  were  reputed  to  be  the 
sons  of  some  of  their  gods.  It  was  not  a  new  thing,  at  that  time, 
to  believe  a  man  to  have  been  celestially  begotten ;  the  intercourse 
of  god3  with  women  was  tl^en  a  matter  of  familiar  opinion.  Their 
Jupitor,  according  to  their  accounts,  had  cohabited  with  hundreds ; 
the  story  therefore  had  nothing  in  it  either  new,  wonderful  or  ob- 
scene ;  it  was  conformable  to  the  opinions  that  then  prevailed 
among  the  people  called  Gentiles,  or  Mythologists,  and  it  was 
those  people  only  that  believed  it.  The  Jews,  who  had  kept 
strictly  to  the  belief  of  one  God,  and  no  more,  and  who  had 
always  rejected  the  heathen  mythology,  never  credited  the  story. 

*  It  is,  however,  necessary  to  except  the  declaration  which  says  that  God 
visits  the  sins  of  the  fathers  .upon  the  children;  it  is  contr?  y  to  every  principle 
of  moral  jxxstice. 


PART  I.]  THB   AGE    OF   REASOIT.  15 

It  is  curious  to  observe  how  the  theory  of  what  is  called  the 
Christian  Church,  sprung  out  of  the  tail  of  heathen  mythology. 
A  direct  incorporation  took  place  in  the  first  instance,  by  making 
the  reputed  founder  to  be  celestially  begotten.  The  trinity  of 
gods  that  then  followed  was  no  other  than  a  reduction  of  the 
former  plurality,  which  was  about  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  ;  the 
statue  of  Mary  succeeded  the  statue  of  Diana  of  Ephesus  ;  the 
deification  of  heroes  changed  into  the  canonization  of  saints  ;  the 
mythologists  had  gods  for  every  thing ;  the  Christian  Mythologist3 
had  saints  for  every  thing  ;  the  church  became  as  crowded  with 
the  one,  as  the  pantheon  had  been  with  the  other  ;  and  Rome  was 
the  place  of  both.  The  Christian  theory  is  little  else  than  the 
idolatry  of  the  ancient  Mythologists,  accommodated  to  the  pur- 
poses of  power  and  revenue ;  and  it  yet  remains  to  reason  and 
philosophy  to  abolish  the  amphibious  fraud. 

Nothing  that  is  here  said  can  apply,  even  with  the  most  distant 
disrespect,  to  the  real  character  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  a  vir- 
tuous and  an  amiable  man.  The  morality  that  he  preached  and 
practised  was  of  the  most  benevolent  kind ;  and  though  similar 
systems  of  morality  had  been  preached  by  Confucius,  and  by  some 
of  the  Greek  philosophers,  many  years  before ;  by  the  Quakers 
since ;  and  by  many  good  men  in  all  ages,  it  has  not  been  ex- 
ceeded by  any. 

Jesus  Christ  wrote  no  account  of  himself,  of  his  birth,  parent- 
age, or  any  thing  else ;  not  a  line  of  what  is  called  the  New 
Testament  is  of  his  own  writing.  The  history  of  him  is  alto- 
gether the  work  of  other  people  ;  and  as  to  the  account  given  ot 
his  resurrection  and  ascension,  it  was  the  necessary  counterpart 
to  the  story  of  his  birth.  His  historians,  having  brought  him 
into  the  world  in  a  supernatural  manner,  were  obliged  to  take  him 
out  again  in  the  same  manner,  or  the  first  part  of  the  story  must 
have  fallen  to  the  ground. 

The  wretched  contrivance  with  which  this  latter  part  is  told,  ex- 
ceeds every  thing  that  went  before  it.  The  first  part,  that  of  the 
miraculous  conception,  was  not  a  thing  that  admitted  of  publicity ; 
and  therefore  the  tellers  of  this  part  of  the  story  had  this  ad- 
Yantage,  that  though  they  might  not  be  credited,  they  could  not 
be  detected.  They  could  not  be  expected  to  prove  it,  because 
Jt  was  not  one  of  those  things  that  admitted  of  proof,  and  it  was 


IS  THE   AGE   OF   BEASOIV.  [pART  I 

impossible  that  the  person  of  whom  it  was  told  could  prove  it 
himself. 

But  the  resurrection  of  a  dead  person  from  the  grave,  and  his 
ascension  through  the  air,  is  a  thing  very  different  as  to  the  evi- 
dence it  admits  of,  to  the  invisible  conception  of  a  child  in  the 
womb.  The  resurrection  and  ascension,  supposing  them  to  have 
taken  place,  admitted  of  public  and  occular  demonstration,  like 
that  of  the  ascension  of  a  balloon,  or  the  sun  at  noon  day,  to  all 
Jerusalem  at  least.  A  thing  which  every  body  is  required  to 
believe,  requires  that  the  proof  and  evidence  of  it  should  be  equal 
to  all,  and  universal ;  and  as  the  public  visibility  of  this  last 
related  act,  was  the  only  evidence  that  could  give  sanction  to  the 
former  part,  the  whole  of  it  falls  to  the  ground,  because  that  evi- 
dence never  was  given.  Instead  of  this,  a  small  number  of  per- 
sons, not  more  than  eight  or  nine,  are  introduced  as  proxies 
for  the  whole  world,  to  say  they  saw  it,  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
world  are  called  upon  to  believe  it.  But  it  appears  that  Thomas 
did  not  believe  the  resurrection  ;  and,  as  they  say,  would  not  be- 
lieve without  having  occular  and  manual  demonstration  himself. 
So  neither  tvill  J,  and  the  reason  is  equally  as  good  for  me,  and 
for  every  other  person,  as  for  Thomas. 

It  is  in  vain  to  attempt  to  palliate  or  disguise  this  matter.  The 
story,  so  far  as  relates  to  the  supernatural  part,  has  every  mark  of 
fraud  and  imposition  stamped  upon  the  face  of  it.  Who  were  the 
authors  of  it  is  as  impossible  for  us  now  to  know,  as  it  is  for  us 
to  be  assured,  that  the  books  in  which  the  account  is  related,  were 
written  by  the  persons  whose  names  they  bear  ;  the  best  surviving 
evidence  we  now  have  respecting  this  affair  is  the  Jews.  They 
are  regularly  descended  from  the  people  who  lived  in  the  time  this 
resurrection  and  ascension  is  said  to  have  happened,  and  they  say, 
it  is  not  true.  It  has  long  appeared  to  me  a  strange  inconsistency 
to  cite  the  Jews  as  a  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  story.  It  is  just  the 
same  as  if  a  man  were  to  say,  I  will  prove  the  truth  of  what  I  have 
told  you,  by  producing  the  people  who  say  it  is  false. 

That  such  a  person  as  Jesus  Christ  existed,  and  that  he  was 
crucified,  which  was  the  mode  of  execution  at  that  day,  are  his- 
torical relations  strictly  within  the  Umits  of  probability.  He 
preached  most  excellent  morality,  and  the  equality  of  man ;  but 
he  preached  also  against  the  corruptions  and  avarice  of  tbje  Jew- 
ish priests,  smd  this  brought  upon  him  the  hatred  and  vengeance  of 


PART    I.J  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  17 

the  whole  order  of  priesthood.  The  accusation  which  those 
priests  brought  against  him  was  that  of  sedition  and  conspiracy 
against  the  Roman  government,  to  which  the  Jews  were  tlien 
subject  and  tributary  ;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  Roman 
government  might  have  some  secret  apprehensions  of  the  effects 
of  his  doctrine  as  well  as  the  Jewish  priests  ;  neither  is  it  impro- 
bable that  Jesus  Christ  had  in  contemplation  the  delivery  of  the 
Jewish  nation  from  the  bondage  of  the  Romans.  Between  the 
two,  however,  this  virtuous  reformer  and  revolutionist  lost  his 
life. 

It  is  upon  this  plain  narrative  of  facts,  together  Avith  another 
case  I  am  going  to  mention,  that  the  Christian  Mythologists, 
calling  themselves  the  Christian  Church,  have  erected  their 
fable,  which  for  absurdity  and  extravagance,  is  not  exceeded  by 
any  thing  that  is  to  be  found  in  the  mythology  of  the  ancients. 

The  ancient  Mythologists  tell  us  that  the  race  of  Giants  made 
war  against  Jupiter,  and  that  one  of  them  threw  a  hundred  rocks 
against  him  at  one  throw  ;  that  Jupiter  defeated  him  with  thunder, 
and  confined  him  afterwards  under  Mount  Etna,  and  that  every 
time  the  Giant  turns  himself.  Mount  Etna  belches  fire. 

It  is  here  easy  to  see  that  the  circumstance  of  the  mountain, 
that  of  its  being  a  volcano,  suggested  the  idea  of  the  fable ;  and 
that  the  fable  is  made  to  fit  and  wind  itself  up  with  that  circum- 
stance. 

The  Christian  Mythologists  tell  us,  that  their  Satan  made  war 
against  the  Almighty,  who  defeated  him,  and  confined  him  after- 
wards, not  under  a  mountain,  but  in  a  pit.  It  is  here  easy  to  see 
that  the  first  fable  suggested  the  idea  of  the  second  ;  for  the  fable 
of  Jupiter  and  the  Giants  was  told  many  hundred  years  before 
that  of  Satan. 

Thus  far  the  ancient  and  the  christian  Mythologists  differ  very 
little  from  each  other.  But  the  latter  have  contrived  to  carry  the 
matter  much  farther.  They  have  contrived  to  connect  the  fabu- 
lous part  of  the  story  of  Jesus  Christ  with  the  fable  originating 
from  Mount  Etna  ;  and,  in  order  to  make  all  the  parts  of  the  story 
tie  together,  they  have  taken  to  their  aid  the  traditions  of  the 
Jews ;  for  the  Christian  mythology  is  made  up  partly  from  the 
ancient  mythology,  and  partly  from  the  Jewish  traditions* 

The  Christian  Mythologists,  after  having  confined  Satan  in  a 
pit,  were  obliged  to  let  him  out  again  to  bring  om  the  sequel  of  tfie 


18  ACE    OF    REASON.  [PART    1 

fable.  He  is  then  introduced  into  the  Garden  of  Eden  in  th« 
shape  of  a  snake  or  a  serpent,  and  in  that  shape  he  enters  into 
familiar  conversation  with  Eve,  who  is  no  way  surprised  to  hear  a 
snake  talk  ;  and  ihe  issue  of  this  tete-a-tete  is,  that  he  persuades 
her  to  eat  an  apple,  and  the  eating  of  that  apple  damns  all  man- 
kind. 

After  giving  Satan  this  triumph  over  the  whole  creation,  one 
would  have  supposed  that  the  church  Mythologists  would  have 
been  kind  enough  to  send  him  back  to  the  pit :  or,  if  they  had  not 
done  this,  that  they  would  have  put  a  mountain  upon  him,  (for 
they  say  that  their  faith  can  remove  a  mountain)  or  have  put  him 
under  a  mountain,  as  the  former  Mythologists  had  done,  to  pre- 
vent his  getting  again  among  the  women  and  doing  more  mischief. 
But  instead  of  this,  they  leave  him  at  large,  without  even  obliging 
him  to  give  his  parole — the  secret  of  which  is,  that  they  could  not 
do  without  him  ;  and  after  being  at  the  trouble  of  making  him, 
they  bribed  him  to  stay.  They  promised  him  all  the  Jews,  all 
the  Turks  by  anticipation,  nine-tenths  of  the  world  beside,  and 
Mahomet  into  the  bargain.  After  this,  who  can  doubt  the  boun 
tifulness  of  the  Christian  mythology. 

Having  thus  made  an  insurrection  and  a  battle  in  Heaven,  in 
which  none  of  the  combatants  could  be  either  killed  or  wounded — 
put  Satan  into  the  pit — let  him  out  again — given  him  a  triumph 
over  the  whole  creation — damned  all  mankind  by  the  eating  of  an 
apple,  these  Christian  Mythologists  bring  the  two  ends  of  theii 
fable  together.  They  represent  this  virtuous  and  amiable  man, 
Jesus  Christ,  to  be  at  once  both  God  and  Man,  and  also  the  Son 
of  God,  celestially  begotten,  on  purpose  to  be  sacrificed,  because 
they  say  that  Eve  in  her  longing  had  eaten  an  apple. 

Putting  aside  every  thing  that  might  excite  laughter  by  its  ab- 
surdity, or  detestation  by  its  profaneness,  and  confining  ourselves 
merely  to  an  examination  of  the  parts,  it  is  impossible  to  conceive 
a  story  more  derogatory  to  the  Almighty,  more  inconsistent  with 
his  wisdom,  more  contradictory  to  his  power,  than  this  story  is. 

In  order  to  make  for  it  a  foundation  to  rise  upon,  the  inventois 
were  under  the  necessity  of  giving  to  the  being,  whom  they  call 
Satan,  a  power  equally  as  great,  if  not  greater  than  they  attribute 
to  the  Almighty.  They  have  not  only  given  him  the  power  of 
liberating  himself  from  the  pit,  after  what  they  call  his  fall,  but 
thev  have  made  that  power  increase  afterwards  to  infinity.    Before 


PART  I.]  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  19 

this  fall  they  represent  him  only  as  an  angel  of  limited  existence, 
as  they  represent  the  rest.  After  his  fall,  he  becomes,  by  their 
account,  omnipresent.  He  exists  everywhere,  and  at  the  same 
time.     He  occupies  the  whole  immensity  of  space. 

Not  content  with  this  deification  of  Satan,  they  represent  him 
as  defeating,  by  stratagem,  in  the  shape  of  an  animal  of  the  crea- 
tion, all  the  power  and  wisdom  of  the  Almighty.  They  represent 
him  as  having  compelled  the  Almighty  to  the  direct  necessity  either 
of  surrendering  the  whole  of  the  creation  to  the  government  and 
sovereignty  of  this  Satan,  or  of  capitulating  for  its  redemption  by 
coming  down  upon  earth,  and  exhibiting  himself  upon  a  cross  in 
the  shape  of  a  man. 

Had  the  inventors  of  this  story  told  it  the  contrary  way,  that 
is,  had  they  represented  the  Almighty  as  compelling  Satan  to  ex- 
hibit himself  on  a  cross,  in  the  shape  of  a  snake,  as  a  punishment 
for  his  new  transgression,  the  story  would  have  been  less  absurd — 
less  contradictory.  But,  instead  of  this,  they  make  the  transgressor 
triumph,  and  the  Almighty  fall. 

That  many  good  men  have  believed  this  strange  fable,  and  lived 
very  good  lives  under  that  belief  (for  credulity  is  not  a  crime)  is 
what  I  have  no  doubt  of.  In  the  first  place,  they  were  educated 
to  believe  it,  and  they  would  have  believed  any  thing  else  in  the 
same  manner.  There  are  also  many  who  have  been  so  enthusi- 
astically enraptured  by  what  they  conceived  to  be  the  infinite  lovo 
of  God  to  man,  in  making  a  sacrifice  of  himself,  that  the  vehe- 
mence of  the  idea  has  forbidden  and  deterred  them  from  examin- 
ing into  the  absurdity  and  profaneness  of  the  story.  The  moro 
unnatural  any  thing  is,  the  more  is  it  capable  of  becoming  the  ob- 
ject of  dismal  admiration. 

But  if  objects  for  gratitude  and  admiration  are  our  desire,  do 
they  not  present  themselves  every  hour  to  our  eyes  1  Do  we  not 
see  a  fair  creation  prepared  to  receive  us  the  instant  we  are  born 
— a  world  furnished  to  our  hands,  that  cost  us  nothing?  Is  it  we 
that  light  up  the  sun,  that  pour  down  the  rain,  and  fill  the  earth 
with  abundance  ?  Whether  we  sleep  or  wake,  the  vast  machinery 
of  the  universe  still  goes  on.  Are  these  things,  and  the  blessings 
they  indicate  in  future,  nothing  to  us  1  Can  our  gross  feelings  be 
excited  by  no  other  subjects  than  tragedy  and  suicide  ?  Or  is  the 
gloomy  pride  of  man  become  so  intolerable,  that  nothing  can 
flatter  it  but  a  sacrifice  of  the  Creator  ? 


20  THE    AGE    OF    REASO:?.  [PAIIT  I. 

I  know  that  this  bold  investigation  will  alarm  many,  but  it 
would  be  paying  too  great  a  compliment  to  their  credulity  to  for- 
bear it  upon  that  account ;  the  times  and  the  subject  demand  it  to 
be  done.  The  suspicion  that  the  theory  of  what  is  called  the 
Christian  church  is  fabulous,  is  becoming  very  extensive  m  all 
countries;  and  it  will  be  a  consolation  to  men  staggering  under 
that  suspicion,  and  doubting  what  to  believe  and  what  to  disbe- 
lieve, to  see  the  subject  freely  investigated.  I  therefore  pass  on  to 
an  examination  of  the  books  called  the  Old  and  New  Testament. 

These  books,  beginning  with  Genesis  and  ending  with  Revela- 
tion, (which,  by  the  bye,  is  a  book  of  riddles  that  requires  a  revela- 
tion to  explain  it)  are,  we  are  told,  the  word  of  God.  It  is,  there- 
fore, proper  for  us  to  know  who  told  us  so,  that  we  may  know 
what  credit  to  give  to  the  report.  The  answer  to  this  question  is, 
that  nobody  can  tell,  except  that  we  tell  one  another  so.  The 
case,  however,  historically  appears  to  be  as  follows  : — 

When  the  church  Mythologists  established  their  system,  they 
collected  all  the  writings  they  could  find,  and  managed  them  as 
ihey  pleased.  It  is  a  matter  altogether  of  uncertainty  to  us 
whether  such  of  the  writings  as  now  appear  under  the  name  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament,  are  in  the  same  state  in  which  those 
collectors  say  they  found  them,  or  whether  they  added,  altered, 
abridged,  or  dressed  them  up. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  they  decided  by  vote  which  of  the  books  out 
of  the  collection  they  had  made,  should  be  the  word  of  god,  and 
which  should  not.  They  rejected  several ;  they  voted  others  to 
be  doubtful,  such  as  the  books  called  the  Apocrypha  ;  and  those 
books  which  had  a  majority  of  votes,  were  voted  to  be  the  word 
of  God.  Had  they  voted  otherwise,  all  the  people,  since  calling 
themselves  Christians,  had  believed  otherwise — for  the  belief  of 
the  one  comes  from  the  vote  of  the  other.  Who  the  people  were 
that  did  all  this,  we  know  nothing  of,  they  called  themselves  by 
the  general  name  of  the  Church  ;  and  this  is  all  we  know  of  the 
matv^r. 

As  we  have  no  other  external  evidence  or  authority  for  believ- 
ing these  books  to  be  the  word  of  God,  than  what  I  have  men- 
tioned, which  is  no  evidence  or  authority  a  all,  I  come,  in  the 
next  place,  to  examine  the  internal  evidence  contained  in  U>« 
books  themselves. 


DART  I.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  911 

In  the  former  part  of  this  Essay,  I  have  spoken  of  revelation.— 
I  now  proceed  further  with  that  subject,  for  the  purpose  of  applying 
it  to  the  books  in  question. 

Revelation  is  a  communication  of  something,  which  the  person, 
to  whom  that  thing  is  revealed,  did  not  know  before.  For  if  I 
have  done  a  thing,  or  seen  it  done,  it  needs  no  revelation  to 
tell  me  I  have  done  it,  or  seen  it,  nor  to  enable  me  to  tell  it,  or  to 
write  it. 

.  Revelation,  therefore,  cannot  be  applied  to  any  thing  done  upon 
earth,  of  which  man  is  himself  the  actor  or  the  witness  ;  and 
consequently  all  the  historical  and  anecdotal  part  of  the  Bible, 
which  is  almost  the  whole  of  it,  is  not  within  the  meaning  and 
compass  of  the  word  revelation,  and,  therefore,  is  not  the  word  of 
God. 

When  Sampson  ran  off  with  the  gate-posts  of  Gaza,  if  he  ever 
did  so,  (and  whether  he  did  or  not  is  nothing  to  us,)  or  when  he 
visited  his  Delilah,  or  caught  his  foxes,  or  did  any  thing  else,  what 
has  revelation  to  do  with  these  things  ?  If  they  were  facts,  he 
could  tell  them  himself;  or  his  secretary,  if  he  kept  one,  could 
write  them,  if  they  Mere  worth  either  telling  or  writing ;  and  if 
they  were  fictions,  revelation  could  not  make  them  true  ;  and 
whether  true  or  not,  we  are  neither  the  better  nor  the  wiser  for 
knowing  them.  When  we  contemplate  the  immensity  of  that 
Being,  who  directs  and  governs  the  incomprehensible  whole,  of 
which  the  utmost  ken  of  human  sight  can  discover  but  a  part, 
we  ought  to  feel  shame  at  calling  such  paltry  stories  the  word  of 
God. 

As  to  the  account  of  the  Creation,  with  which  the  book  of 
Genesis  opens,  it  has  all  the  appearance  of  being  a  tradition  which 
the  Israelites  had  among  them  before  they  came  into  Egypt ;  and 
after  their  departure  from  that  country,  they  put  it  at  the  head  of 
their  history,  without  telling  (as  it  is  most  probable)  that  they  did 
not  know  how  they  came  by  it.  The  manner  in  which  the  account 
opens,  shows  it  to  be  traditionary.  It  begins  abruptly  :  it  is  no- 
body that  speaks  ;  it  is  nobody  that  hears  ;  it  is  addressed  to  no- 
body ;  it  has  neither  first,  second,  or  third  person  ;  it  has  every 
criterion  of  being  a  tradition,  it  has  no  voucher.  Moses  does  not 
take  it  upon  himself  by  introducing  it  with  the  formality  that  he 


22  THE    AGE    OF    REA30N.  f  PART  I. 

uses  on  other  occasions,  such  as  that  of  saying,  Tlie  Lord  spaJce 
unto  JMoses,  saying. ^^ 

"Why  it  has  been  called  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  Creation,  I 
am  at  a  loss  to  conceive.  Moses,  I  believe,  was  too  good  a 
judge  of  such  subjects  to  put  his  name  to  that  account.  He  had 
been  educated  among  the  Egyptians,  who  were  a  people  as  well 
skilled  in  science,  and  particularly  in  astronomy,  as  any  people  of 
their  day ;  and  the  silence  and  caution  that  Moses  observes  in 
not  authenticating  the  account,  is  a  good  negative  evidence  that 
he  neither  told  it  nor  believed  it. — The  case  is,  that  every  nation 
of  people  has  been  world-makers,  and  the  Israelites  had  as  much 
right  to  set  up  the  trade  of  world-making  as  any  of  the  rest;  and 
as  Moses  was  not  an  Israelite,  he  might  not  choose  to  contradict 
the  tradition.  The  account,  however,  is  harmless ;  and  this  is 
more  than  can  be  said  of  many  other  parts  of  the  Bible. 

"Whenever  we  read  the  obscene  stories,  the  voluptuous  de- 
baucheries, the  cruel  and  torturous  executions,  the  unrelenting 
vindictiveness,  with  which  more  than  half  the  Bible  is  filled,  it 
would  be  more  consistent  that  we  called  it  the  word  of  a  demon, 
than  the  word  of  God.  It  is  a  history  of  wickedness,  that  has 
served  to  corrupt  and  brutalize  mankind  ;  and,  for  my  own  part,  I 
sincerely  detest  it,  as  I  detest  every  thing  that  is  cruel. 

We  scarcely  meet  with  any  thing,  a  few  phrases  excepted,  but 
what  deserves  either  our  abhorence  or  our  contempt,  till  we  come 
to  the  miscellaneous  parts  of  the  Bible.  In  the  anonymous  pub- 
lications, the  Psalms,  and  the  Book  of  Job,  more  particularly  in 
the  latter,  we  find  a  great  deal  of  elevated  sentiment  reverentially 
expressed  of  the  power  and  benignity  of  the  Almighty;  but  they 
stand  on  no  higher  rank  than  many  other  compositions  on  similar 
subjects,  as  well  before  that  time  as  since. 

The  Proverbs  which  are  said  to  be  Solomon's,  though  most 
probably  a  collection,  (because  they  discover  a  knowledge  of  life, 
which  his  situation  excluded  him  from  knowing)  are  an  instructive 
table  of  ethics.  They  are  inferior  in  keenness  to  the  proverbs  of 
the  Spaniards,  and  not  more  wise  and  economical  than  those  of  the 
American  Franklin. 

All  the  remaining  parts  of  the  Bible,  generally  known  by  the 
name  of  the  Prophets,  are  the  works  of  the  JeAvish  poets  and 
itinerant  preachers,  who  mixed  poetry,  anecdote,  and  devotion 


FART  l.J  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  23 

together — and  those  works  still  retain  the  air  and  style  of  poetry, 
though  in  translation.* 

There  is  not,  throughout  the  whole  book  called  the  Bible,  any 
word  that  describes  to  us  what  we  call  a  poet,  nor  any  word  that 
describes  what  we  call  poetry.  The  case  is,  that  the  word  pro- 
phet,  to  which  latter  times  have  affixed  a  new  idea,  was  the  Bible 
word  for  poet,  and  the  word  prophesying  meant  the  art  of  making 
poetry.  It  also  meant  the  art  of  playing  poetry  to  a  tune  upon  any 
instrument  of  music. 

We  read  of  prophesying  with  pipes,  tabrets,  and  horns — of 
prophesying  with  harps,  with  psalteries,  with  cymbals,  and  with 
every  other  instrument  of  music  then  in  fashion.  Were  we  now 
to  speak  of  prophesying  with  a  fiddle,  or  with  a  pipe  and  tabor,  the 
expression  would  have  no  meaning,  or  would  appear  ridiculous, 
and  to  some  people  contemptuous,  because  we  have  changed  the 
meaning  of  the  word. 

We  are  told  of  Saul  being  among  the  prophets,  and  also  that  he 
prophesied  ;  but  we  are  not  told  what  they  prophesied,  nor  what  he 
prophesied.  The  case  is,  there  was  nothing  to  tell  ;  for  these 
prophets  were  a  company  of  musicians  and  poets,  and  Saul  joined 
in  the  concert,  and  this  was  called  prophesying. 


*  As  there  are  many  readers  who  do  not  see  that  a  composition  is  poetry, 
unless  it  be  in  rhyme,  it  is  for  their  information  that  I  add  this  note. 

Poetry  consists  principally  in  two  things — imagery  and  composition.  The 
composition  of  poetry  differs  from  that  of  prose  in  the  manner  of  mixing  long 
and  short  syllables  together.  Take  a  long  syllable  out  of  a  line  of  poetry,  and 
put  a  short  one  in  the  room  of  it,  or  put  a  long  syllable  where  a  short  one 
should  be,  and  that  hne  will  lose  its  poetical  harmony.  It  will  have  an  effect 
upon  the  line  like  that  of  misplacing  a  note  in  a  song. 

The  imagery  in  those  books,  called  the  prophets,  appertains  altogether  to 
poetry.  It  is  nctitious,  and  often  extravagant,  and  not  admissible  in  any  other 
kind  of  writing  than  poetry. 

To  show  that  these  writings  are  composed  in  poetical  numbers,  I  will  take 
ten  syllables,  as  they  stand  in  the  book,  and  make  a  line  of  the  same  number 
of  syllables  (heroic  measure)  that  shall  rhyme  with  the  last  word.  It  will 
then  be  seen  that  the  composition  of  those  books  is  poetical  measui-e.  The 
instance  I  shall  produce  is  from  Isaiah  : — 

"  Hear,  O  ye  heavens,  and  give  ear,  0  earth  /" 
'Tis  God  himself  that  calls  attention  forth. 

Another  instance  I  shall  quote  is  from  the  mournful  Jeremiah,  to  which 
shall  add  two  other  lines,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  the 
■howing  tlie  intention  of  the  poet. 

"  0  !  that  mine  head  were  waters  and  mine  eyes" 
"Were  fountains  flowing  like  the  liquid  skies ; 
Then  would  I  give  the  mighty  flood  release, 
And  weep  a  deluge  for  the  human  race. 


24  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    I. 

The  account  given  of  this  affair  in  the  book  called  Samuel,  is, 
that  Saul  met  a  company  of  prophets  :  a  whole  company  of  them ! 
coming  down  with  a  psaltery,  a  tabret,  a  pipe,  and  a  harp,  and 
that  they  prophesied,  and  that  he  prophesied  with  them.  But 
it  appears  afterwards,  that  Saul  prophesied  badly ;  that  is,  per- 
formed his  part  badly  ;  for  it  is  said,  that,  an  "  evil  spirit  from 
God'^*  came  upon  Saul,  and  he  prophesied. 

Now,  were  there  no  other  passage  in  the  book  called  the  Bible, 
than  this,  to  demonstrate  to  us  that  we  have  lost  the  original 
meaning  of  the  word  prophesy,  and  substituted  another  meaning  in 
its  place,  this  alone  would  be  sufficient  ;  for  it  is  impossible  to 
use  and  apply  the  word  prophesy,  in  the  place  it  is  here  used  and 
applied,  if  we  give  to  it  the  sense  which  latter  times  have  affixed 
10  it.  The  manner  in  which  it  is  here  used  strips  it  of  all  religious 
meaning,  and  shows  that  a  man  might  then  be  a  prophet,  or  he 
might  prophesy,  as  he  may  now  be  a  poet  or  musician,  without 
any  regard  to  the  morality  or  immorality  of  his  character.  The 
word  was  originally  a  term  of  science,  promiscuously  applied  to 
poetry  and  to  music,  and  not  restricted  to  any  subject  upon  which 
poetry  and  music  might  be  exercised. 

Deborah  and  Barak  are  called  prophets,  not  because  they  pre* 
dieted  any  thing,  but  because  they  composed  the  poem  or  song 
that  bears  their  name,  in  celebration  of  an  act  already  done. 
David  is  ranked  among  the  prophets,  for  he  was  a  musician,  and 
was  also  reputed  to  be  (though  perhaps  very  erroneously)  the 
author  of  the  Psalms.  But  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  are  not 
called  prophets  ;  it  does  not  appear  from  any  accounts  we  have, 
that  they  could  either  sing,  play  music,  or  make  poetry. 

We  are  told  of  the  greater  and  the  lesser  prophets.  They  might 
as  well  tell  us  of  the  greater  and  the  lesser  God  ;  for  there  cannot 
be  degrees  in  prophesying  consistently  with  its  modern  sense. — 
But  there  are  degrees  in  poetry,  and  therefore  the  phrase  is  recon- 
cileable  to  the  case,  when  we  understand  by  it  the  greater  and  the 
lesser  poets. 

It  is  altogether  unnecessary,  after  this,  to  offer  any  observations 
upon  what  those  men,  styled  prophets,  have  written.  The  axe 
goes  at  once  to  the  root,  by  showing  that  the  original  meaning  of 

*  As  those  men  who  call  themselves  divines  and  commentators,  are  very 
fiVnd  of  puzzling  one  another,  I  leave  them  to  contest  the  meaning  of  the  first 
prtTt  of  the  phrase,  that  of  an  evil  spirit  of  God.  I  keep  to  my  text — I  keep  to 
Ihe  meaning  of  the  word  prophesy. 


PART    I.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  25 

the  word  has  been  mistaken,  and  consequently  all  the  inferences 
that  have  been  drawn  from  those  books,  the  devotional  respect 
that  has  been  paid  to  them,  and  the  laboured  commentaries  that 
have  been  written  upon  them,  under  that  mistaken  meaning,  are 
not  worth  disputing  about.  In  many  things,  however,  the  wri- 
tings of  the  Jewish  poets  deserve  a  better  fate  than  that  of  being 
bound  up,  as  they  now  are,  with  the  trash  that  accompanies  them, 
under  the  abused  name  of  the  word  of  God. 

If  we  permit  ourselves  to  conceive  right  ideas  of  things,  we 
must  necessarily  affix  the  idea,  not  only  of  unchangeableness,  but 
of  the  utter  impossibility  of  any  change  taking  place,  by  any 
means  or  accident  whatever,  in  that  \\  Inch  we  would  honour  with 
the  name  of  the  word  of  God  ;  and  therefore  the  word  of  God 
cannot  exist  in  any  written  or  human  language. 

Tlie  continually  progressive  change  to  which  the  meaning  of 
words  is  subject,  the  want  of  an  universal  language  which  renders 
translation  necessary,  the  errors  to  which  translations  are  again 
subject,  the  mistakes  of  copyists  and  printers,  together  with  the 
possibility  of  wilful  alteration,  are  of  themselves  evidences  that 
the  human  language,  whether  in  speech  or  in  print,  cannot  be  the 
vehicle  of  the  word  of  God.  The  word  of  God  exists  in  some- 
thing else. 

Did  the  book,  called  the  Bible,  excel  in  purity  of  ideas  and 
expression  all  the  books  now  extant  in  the  world,  I  wouM  not  take 
it  for  my  rule  of  faith,  as  being  the  word  of  God,  because  the 
possibility  would  nevertheless  exist  of  my  being  imposed  upon. 
But  when  I  see  throughout  the  greatest  part  of  this  book,  scarcely 
any  thing  but  a  history  of  the  grossest  vices,  and  a  collection  of 
the  most  paltry  and  contemptible  tales,  I  cannot  dishonor  my 
Creator  by  calling  it  by  his  name. 

Thus  much  for  the  Bible  ;  I  now  go  on  to  the  book  called  the 
New  Testament.  The  JVeio  Testament !  that  is,  the  new  will, 
as  if  there  could  be  two  wills  of  the  Creator. 

Had  it  been  the  object  or  the  intention  of  Jesus  Christ  to  estab 
lish  a  new  religion,  he  would  undoubtedly  have  written  the  system 
himself,  or  procured  it  to  be  writlen  in  his  life  time.  But  there  is 
no  pubUcation  extant  authenticated  Avith  his  name.  All  the  books 
called  the  New  Testament  were  written  after  his  death.  He  was 
a  Jew  by  birth  and  by  profession  :  and  he  was  the  son  of  God  in 
4 


26  THE    AGE    or    REASON.  [PART    I. 

like  manner  that  every  other  person  is — for  the  Creator  is  tho 
Father  of  All. 

The  first  four  books,  called  Mathew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  do 
not  give  a  history  of  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  only  detached 
anecdotes  of  him.  It  appears  from  these  books,  that  the  whole 
time  of  his  being  a  preacher  was  not  more  than  eighteen  months  ; 
and  it  was  only  during  this  short  time,  that  those  men  became  ac- 
quainted with  him.  They  make  mention  of  him  at  the  age  of  twelve 
years,  sitting,  they  say,  among  the  Jewish  doctors,  asking  and 
answering  them  questions.  As  this  was  several  years  before  their 
acquamtance  with  him  began,  it  is  most  probable  they  had  this 
anecdote  from  his  parents.  From  this  time  there  is  no  account 
of  him  for  about  sixteen  years.  "Where  he  lived,  or  how  he  em- 
ployed himself  during  this  interval,  is  not  known.  Most  probably 
he  was  working  at  his  father's  trade,  which  was  that  of  a  car- 
penter. It  does  not  apoear  that  he  had  any  school  education,  and 
the  probability  is,  that  he  could  not  write,  for  his  parents  were 
extremely  poor,  as  appears  from  their  not  being  able  to  pay  for  a 
bed  when  he  was  born. 

It  is  somewhat  curious  that  the  three  persons  whose  names  are 
the  most  universally  recorded,  were  of  very  obscure  parentage. 
Moses  was  a  foundling  ;  Jesus  Christ  was  born  in  a  stable  ;  and 
Mahomet  was  a  mule  driver.  The  first  and  the  last  of  these  men 
were  founders  of  different  systems  of  religion  ;  but  Jesus  Chris* 
'ounded  no  new  system.  He  called  men  to  the  practice  of  mors* 
virtues,  and  the  belief  of  one  God.  The  great  trait  in  his  rha 
racter  is  philanthropy. 

The  manner  in  which  he  was  apprehended,  shows  that  he  wuo- 
not  much  known  at  that  time  ;  and  it  shows  also,  that  the  meetings 
he  then  held  with  his  followers  were  in  secret ;  and  that  he  had 
given  over  or  suspended  preaching  publicly.  Judas  could  no  other 
wise  betray  him  than  by  giving  information  where  he  was,  and 
pointing  him  out  to  the  officers  that  went  to  arrest  him  ;  and  the 
reason  for  employing  and  paying  Judas  to  do  this  could  arise  only 
from  the  cause  already  mentioned,  that  of  his  not  being  much 
known,  and  living  concealed. 

The  idea  of  his  concealment,  not  only  agrees  very  ill  with  his 
reputed  divinity,  but  associates  with  it  something  of  pusillanimity  : 
and  his  being  betrayed,  or  in  other  words,  his  being  apprehended, 
on  the  information  of.  one  of  his  followers,  shows  that  he  did  not 


PART    I.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  27 

intend  to  be  apprehended,  and  consequently  that  he  did  not  intend 
to  be  crucified. 

The  Christian  Mythologists  tell  us,  that  Christ  died  for  the  sins 
of  the  world,  and  that  he  came  on  purpose  to  die.  Would  it  not 
then  have  been  the  same  if  he  had  died  of  a  fever,  or  of  the  small 
pox,  of  old  age,  or  of  any  thing  else  ? 

The  declaratory  sentence  which,  they  say,  was  passed  upon 
Adam,  in  case  he  eat  of  the  apple,  was  not,  that  thou  shall  surely 
be  crucified,  but,  thou  shall  surely  die — the  sentence  of  death,  and 
not  the  manner  of  dying.  Crucifixion,  therefore,  or  any  other 
particular  manner  of  dying,  made  no  part  of  the  sentence  that 
Adam  was  to  sufler,  and  consequently,  even  upon  their  own  tac- 
tics, it  could  make  no  part  of  the  sentence  that  Christ  was  to 
suffer  in  the  room  of  Adam.  A  fever  would  have  done  as  well 
as  a  cross,  if  there  was  any  occasion  for  either. 

The  sentence  of  death,  which  they  tell  us,  was  thus  passed  upon 
Adam,  must  either  have  meant  dying  naturally,  that  is,  ceasing  to 
live,  or  have  meant  what  these  Mythologists  call  damnation  ;  and 
consequently,  the  act  of  dying  on  the  part  of  Jesus  Christ,  must 
according  to  their  system,  apply  as  a  prevention  to  one  or  other  of 
these  two  things  happening  to  Adam  and  to  us. 

That  it  does  not  prevent  our  dying  is  evident,  because  we  all 
die  ;  and  if  their  accounts  of  longevity  be  true,  men  die  faster  since 
the  crucifixion  than  before  ;  and  with  respect  to  the  second  ex- 
planation, (including  with  it  the  natural  death  of  Jesus  Christ 
as  a  substitute  for  the  eternal  death  or  damnation  of  all  mankind,) 
it  is  impertinently  representing  the  Creator  as  corning  off,  or 
revoking  the  sentence,  by  a  pun  or  a  quibble  upon  the  word  death. 
That  manufacturer  of  quibbles,  St.  Paul,  if  he  wrote  the  books 
that  bear  his  name,  has  helped  this  quibble  on  by  making  another 
quibble  upon  the  word  Adam.  He  makes  there  to  be  two  Adams  ; 
the  one  who  sins  in  fact,  and  suffers  by  proxy  ;  the  other  who  sins 
by  proxy,  and  suffers  in  fact.  A  religion  thus  interlarded  with 
quibble,  subterfuge,  and  pun,  has  a  tendency  to  instruct  its  pro- 
fessors in  the  practice  of  these  arts.  They  acquire  the  habit 
without  being  aware  of  the  cause. 

If  Jesus  Christ  was  the  being  which  those  Mythologists  tell  us 
he  was,  and  that  he  came  into  this  world  to  suffer,  which  is  a  word 
they  sometimes  use  instead  of  to  die,  the  only  real  suffering  ha 
could  have  endured,  would  have  been  to  live.     His  existence  hero 


28  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART   I 

was  a  state  of  exilement  or  transportation  from  Heaven,  and  the 
way  back  to  his  original  country  was  to  die. — In  fine,  every  thing 
in  this  strange  system  is  the  reverse  of  what  it  pretends  to  be.  It 
is  the  reverse  of  truth,  and  I  become  so  tired  of  examining  into  its 
mconsistencies  and  absurdities,  that  I  hasten  to  the  conclusion  of 
it,  in  order  to  proceed  to  something  better. 

How  much,  or  what  parts  of  the  books  called  the  New  Testa- 
ment, were  written  by  the  persons  whose  names  they  bear,  is  what 
we  can  know  nothing  of,  neither  are  we  certain  in  what  language 
they  were  originally  written.  The  matters  they  now  contain  may 
be  classed  under  two  heads — anecdote  and  epistolary  correspon- 
dence. 

The  four  books  already  mentioned,  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and 
John,  are  altogether  anecdotal.  They  relate  events  after  they  had 
taken  place.  They  tell  what  Jesus  Christ  did  and  said,  and  what 
others  did  and  said  to  him  ;  and  in  several  instances  they  relate 
the  same  event  differently.  Revelation  is  necessarily  out  of  the 
question  with  respect  to  those  books;  not  only  because  of  the 
disagreement  of  the  writers,  but  because  revelation  cannot  be 
applied  to  the  relating  of  facts  by  the  persons  who  saw  them  done, 
nor  to  the  relating  or  recording  of  any  discourse  or  conversation 
by  those  who  heard  it.  The  book  called  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
(an  anonymous  work)  belongs  also  to  the  anecdotal  part. 

All  the  other  parts  of  the  New  Testament,  except  the  book  of 
enigmas,  called  the  Revelations,  are  a  collection  of  letters  under 
the  name  of  epistles  ;  and  the  forgery  of  letters  has  been  such  a 
common  practice  in  the  world,  that  the  probability  is  at  least  equal, 
whether  they  are  genuine  or  forged.  One  thing,  however,  is 
much  less  equivocal,  which  is,  that  out  of  the  matters  contained  in 
those  books,  together  with  the  assistance  of  some  old  stories,  the 
church  has  set  up  a  system  of  religion  very  contradictory  to  the 
character  of  the  person  whose  name  it  bears.  It  has  set  up  a 
religion  of  pomp  and  of  revenue,  in  pretended  imitation  of  a  per- 
son whose  life  was  humility  and  poverty. 

The  invention  of  purgatory,  and  of  the  releasing  of  souls  there- 
from, by  prayers,  bought  of  the  church  with  money  ;  the  selling  of 
pardons,  dispensations  and  indulgencies,  are  revenue  laws,  with- 
out bearing  that  name  or  carrying  that  appearance.  But  the  case 
nevertheless  is,  that  those  things  derive  their  origin  from  the 
paroxysm  of  the  crucifixion  and  the  theory  deduced  therefrom 


»ABT    1.]  THE    AOE    OF    REASON.  £9 

which  was,  that  one  person  could  stand  in  the  place  of  another, 
and  could  perform  meritorious  services  for  him.  The  probability, 
therefore,  is,  that  the  whole  theory  or  doctrine  of  what  is  called 
the  redemption  (which  is  said  to  have  been  accomplished  by  the 
act  of  one  person  in  the  room  of  another)  was  originally  fabricated 
on  purpose  to  bring  forward  and  build  all  those  secondary  and 
pecuniary  redemptions  upon  ;  and  that  the  passages  in  the  books 
upon  which  the  idea  of  theory  of  redemption  is  built,  have  been 
manufactured  and  fabricated  for  that  purpose.  "VYhy  are  we  to 
give  this  church  credit,  when  she  tells  us  that  those  books  are 
genuine  in  every  part,  any  more  than  we  give  her  credit  for  every 
thing  else  she  has  told  us  ;  or  for  the  miracles  she  says  she  has 
performed  1  That  she  could  fabricate  writings  is  certain,  because 
she  could  write  ;  and  the  composition  of  the  writings  in  question, 
is  of  that  kind  that  any  body  might  do  it ;  and  that  she  did 
fabricate  them  is  not  more  inconsistent  with  probability,  than 
that  she  should  tell  us,  as  she  has  done,  that  she  could  and  did 
work  miracles. 

Since,  then,  no  external  evidence  can,  at  this  long  distance  of 
time,  be  produced  to  prove  whether  the  church  fabricated  the  doc- 
trines called  redemption  or  not,  (for  such  evidence,  whether  for  or 
against,  would  be  subject  to  the  same  suspicion  of  being  fabrica- 
ted,) the  case  can  only  be  referred  to  the  internal  evidence  which 
the  thing  carries  within  itself ;  and  this  affords  a  very  strong  pre- 
sumption of  its  being  a  fabrication.  For  the  internal  evidence  is, 
that  the  theory  or  doctrine  of  redemption  has  for  its  basis  an  idea 
of  pecuniary  justice,  and  not  that  of  moral  justice. 

If  I  owe  a  person  money,  and  cannot  pay  him,  and  he  threatens 
to  put  me  in  prison,  another  person  can  take  the  debt  upon  him- 
self, and  pay  it  for  me  ;  but  if  I  have  committed  a  crime,  every 
circumstance  of  the  case  is  changed  ;  moral  justice  cannot  take 
the  innocent  for  the  guilty,  even  if  the  innocent  would  offer  itself. 
To  suppose  justice  to  do  this,  is  to  destroy  the  principle  of  its 
existence,  which  is  the  thing  itself;  it  is  then  no  longer  justice ;  it 
is  indiscriminate  revenge. 

This  single  reflection  will  show  that  the  doctrine  of  redemption 
is  founded  on  a  mere  pecuniary  idea,  corresponding  to  that  of  a 
debt,  which  another  person  might  pay  ;  and  as  this  pecuniary  idea 
corresponds  again  with  the  system  of  second  redemptions,  ob- 
tained through  the  means  of  money  given  to  the  church  for 


30  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART   I. 

pardons,  the  probability  is,  that  the  same  persons  fabricated  both 
one  and  the  other  of  those  theories  ;  and  that,  in  truth,  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  redemption  ;  that  it  is  fabulous,  and  that  man  stands 
in  the  same  relative  condition  with  his  Maker  he  ever  did  stand, 
since  man  existed,  and  that  it  is  his  greatest  consolation  to  think 
so. 

Let  him  believe  this,  and  he  will  live  more  consistently  and 
morally,  than  by  any  other  system  ;  it  is  by  his  being  taught  to 
contemplate  himself  as  an  out-law,  as  an  out-cast,  as  a  beggar,  as 
a  mumper,  as  one  thrown,  as  it  were,  on  a  dunghill,  at  an  immense 
distance  from  his  Creator,  and  who  must  make  his  approaches  by 
creeping  and  cringing  to  intermediate  beings,  that  he  conceives 
either  a  contemptuous  disregard  for  every  thing  under  the  name 
of  religion,  or  becomes  indifferent,  or  turns,  what  he  calls,  devout. 
In  the  latter  case,  he  consumes  his  life  in  grief,  or  the  affectation 
of  it ;  his  prayers  are  reproaches  ;  his  humiUty  is  ingratitude  ; 
he  calls  himself  a  worm,  and  the  fertile  earth  a  dunghill ;  and 
all  the  blessings  of  life,  by  the  thankless  name  of  vanities  ;  be 
despises  the  choicest  gift  of  God  to  man,  the  gift  of  reason; 
and  having  endeavoured  to  force  upon  himself  the  belief  of  a 
system  against  which  reason  revolts,  he  ungratefully  calls  it 
human  reason,  as  if  man  could  give  reason  to  himself. 

Yet,  with  all  this  strange  appearance  of  humility,  and  this  con- 
tempt for  human  reason,  he  ventures  into  the  boldest  presump- 
tions; he  finds  fault  with  every  thing;  his  selfishness  is  nevei 
satisfied  ;  his  ingratitude  is  never  at  an  end.  He  takes  on  him- 
self to  direct  the  Almighty  what  t-^  do,  even  in  the  government 
of  the  universe  ;  he  prays  dicta^orially  ;  when  it  is  sun-shine,  he 
prays  for  rain,  and  when  it  is  rain,  he  prays  for  sun-shine ;  he 
follows  the  same  idea  in  every  thing  that  he  prays  for  ;  for  what 
is  the  amount  of  all  his  prayers,  but  an  attempt  to  make  the 
Almighty  change  his  mind,  and  act  otherwise  than  he  does  ?  It  is 
as  if  he  were  to  say — thou  knowest  not  so  well  as  I. 

But  some  perhaps  will  say — Are  we  to  have  no  word  of  God 
— no  revelation !  I  answer,  Yes  :  there  is  a  word  of  God  ;  there 
is  a  revelation. 

The  word  of  God  is  the  creation  we  behold  :  And  it  is 
in  this  njorrf,  which  no  human  invention  can  counterfeit  or  alter, 
that  God  speaketh  universally  to  man. 


PART  1.  I  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  31 

Human  language  is  local  and  changeable,  and  is  therefore  inca- 
pable of  being  used  as  the  means  of  unchangeable  and  universal 
information.  The  idea  that  God  sent  Jesus  Christ  to  publish,  as 
they  say,  the  glad  tidings  to  all  nations,  from  one  end  of  the  earth 
to  the  other,  is  consistent  only  with  the  ignorance  of  those  who 
knew  nothing  of  the  extent  of  the  world,  and  who  believed,  as 
those  world-saviours  believed,  and  continued  to  believe,  for  seve- 
ral centuries,  (and  that  in  contradiction  to  the  discoveries  of  phi- 
losophers and  the  experience  of  navigators,)  that  the  earth  was  flat 
like  a  trencher ;  and  that  a  man  might  walk  to  the  end  of  it. 

But  how  was  Jesus  Christ  to  make  any  thing  known  to  all  na- 
tions 1  He  could  speak  but  one  language,  which  was  Hebrew  ; 
and  there  are  in  the  world  several  hundred  languages.  Scarcely 
any  two  nations  speak  the  same  language,  or  understand  each 
other ;  and  as  to  translations,  every  man  who  knows  any  thing  of 
languages,  knows  that  it  was  impossible  to  translate  from  one  lan- 
guage to  another,  not  only  without  losing  a  great  part  of  the  ori- 
ginal, but  frequently  of  mistaking  the  sense  ;  and  besides  all  this, 
the  art  of  printing  was  wholly  unknown  at  the  time  Christ  lived. 

It  is  always  necessary  that  the  means  that  are  to  accomplish  any 
end,  be  equal  to  the  accomplishment  of  that  end,  or  the  end  can- 
not be  accomplished.  It  is  in  this,  that  the  difference  between 
finite  and  infinite  power  and  wisdom  discovers  itself.  Man  fre- 
quently fails  in  accomplishing  his  ends,  from  a  natural  inability  of 
the  power  to  the  purpose  ;  and  frequently  from  the  want  of  wis- 
dom to  apply  power  properly.  But  it  is  impossible  for  infinite 
power  and  wisdom  to  fail  as  man  faileth.  The  means  it  useth  are 
always  equal  to  the  end  ;  but  human  language,  more  especially  as 
there  is  not  an  universal  language,  is  incapable  of  being  used 
as  an  universal  means  of  unchangeable  and  uniform  information, 
and  therefore  it  is  not  the  means  that  God  useth  in  manifesting 
himself  universally  to  man. 

It  is  only  in  the  creation  that  all  our  ideas  and  conceptions  of 
a  icord  of  God  can  unite.  The  Creation  speaketh  an  universal 
language,  independently  of  human  speech  or  human  language, 
multiplied  and  various  as  they  be.  It  is  an  ever-existing  original, 
which  every  man  can  read.  It  cannot  be  forged  ;  it  cannot  be 
counterfeited  ;  it  cannot  be  lost ;  it  cannot  be  altered  ;  it  cannot 
be  suppressed.  It  does  not  depend  upon  the  will  of  man  whether 
it  shall  be  published  or  not ;  it  publishes  itself  from  one  end  of  the 


32  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART  I. 

earth  to  the  other.  It  preaches  to  all  nations  and  to  all  worlds  ; 
and  this  word  of  God  reveals  to  man  all  that  is  necessary  for  man 
to  know  of  God. 

Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  power  1  We  see  it  in  the  im- 
mensity of  the  Creation.  Do  we  wait  to  contemplate  his  wis- 
dom ]  We  see  it  in  the  unchangeable  order  by  which  the  incom- 
prehensible whole  is  governed.  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his 
munificence  ?  We  see  it  in  the  abundance  with  which  he  fdls  the 
earth.  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  mercy  ?  We  see  it  in  his 
not  withholding  that  abundance  even  from  the  unthankful.  In 
fine,  do  we  want  to  know  what  God  is  ?  Search  not  the  book 
called  the  Scripture,  which  any  human  hand  might  make,  but  the 
Scripture  called  the  Creation. 

The  only  idea  man  can  affix  to  the  name  of  God,  is  that  of  a 
first  cause,  the  cause  of  all  things.  And,  incomprehensible  and 
difficult  as  it  is  for  a  man  to  conceive  what  a  first  cause  is,  he  ar- 
rives at  the  belief  of  it,  from  the  tenfold  greater  difficulty  of  disbe- 
lieving it.  It  is  difficult  beyond  description  to  conceive  that  space 
can  have  no  end  ;  but  it  is  more  difficult  to  conceive  an  end.  It 
IS  difficult  beyond  the  power  of  man  to  conceive  an  eternal  dura- 
tion of  what  we  call  time  ;  but  it  is  more  impossible  to  conceive 
a  time  when  there  shall  be  no  time. 

In  like  manner  of  reasoning,  every  thing  we  behold  carries  ie 
itself  the  internal  evidence  that  it  did  not  make  itself.  Every 
man  is  an  evidence  to  himself,  that  he  did  not  make  himself; 
neither  could  his  father  make  himself,  nor  his  grandfather,  nor  any 
of  his  race ;  neither  could  any  tree,  plant,  or  animal  make  itself; 
and  it  is  the  conviction  arising  from  this  evidence,  that  carries  us 
on,  as  it  were,  by  necessity,  to  the  belief  of  a  first  cause  eternally 
existing,  of  a  nature  totally  diflTerent  to  any  material  existence  we 
know  of,  and  by  the  power  of  which  all  things  exist ;  and  this  first 
cause  man  calls  God. 

It  is  only  by  the  exercise  of  reason,  that  man  can  discover 
God.  Take  away  that  reason,  and  he  would  be  incapable  oif 
understanding  any  thing ;  and,  in  this  case  it  would  be  just  as 
consistent  to  read  even  the  book  called  the  Bible  to  a  horse  as  to 
a  man.  How  then  is  it  that  those  people  pretend  to  reject 
reason  ? 

Almost  the  only  parts  in  the  book  called  the  Bible,  that  convey 
to  us  any  idea  of  God,  are  some  chapters  in  Job,  and  the  1 9th 


fART   I.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  38 

Psalm  ;  I  recollect  no  other.  Those  parts  are  true  deistical  com- 
positions ;  for  they  treat  of  the  Deity  through  his  works.  They 
take  the  book  of  Creation  as  the  word  of  God,  they  refer  to  no 
other  book,  and  all  the  inferences  they  make  are  drawn  from  that 
volume. 

I  insert,  in  this  place,  the  19th  Psalm,  as  paraphrased  into  Eng- 
lish verse  by  Addison.  I  recollect  not  the  prose,  and  where  I 
write  this  I  have  not  the  opportunity  of  seeing  it. 

The  spacious  firmament  on  high, 

With  all  the  blue  etherial  sky, 

And  spangled  heavens,  a  shining  frame, 

Their  great  original  proclaim. 

The  unwearied  sun,  from  day  to  day, 

Does  his  Creator's  power  display  ; 

And  publishes  to  every  land, 

The  work  of  an  Almighty  hand. 

Soon  as  the  evening  shades  prevail 

The  moon  takes  up  the  wondrous  tale. 

And  nightly  to  the  listning  earth, 

Repeats  the  story  of  her  birth ; 

Whilst  all  the  stars  that  round  her  burn, 

And  all  the  planets,  in  their  turn. 

Confirm  the  tidings  as  they  roll. 

And  spread  the  truth  from  pole  to  pole. 

What  though  in  solemn  silence  all 

Move  round  this  dark  terrestrial  ball  ; 

What  though  no  real  voice,  nor  sound. 

Amidst  their  radient  orbs  be  found. 

In  reason's  ear  they  all  rejoice. 

And  utter  forth  a  glorious  voice, 

For  ever  singing  as  they  shine, 

The  hand  that  made  vs  is  divine. 

What  more  does  man  want  to  know,  than  that  the  hand  or 
power,  that  made  these  things  is  divine,  is  omnipotent?  Let  him 
believe  this  with  the  force  it  is  impossible  to  repel,  if  he  permits 
his  reason  to  act,  and  his  rule  of  moral  life  will  follow  of  course. 

The  allusions  in  Job  have  all  of  them  the  same  tendency  with 
this  Fsalm  ;  that  of  deducing  or  proving  a  truth  that  would  be 
otherwise  unknown,  from  truths  already  known. 

I  recollect  not  enough  of  the  passages  in  Job,  to  insert  them 

correctly :  but  there  is  one  occurs  to  me  that  is  applicable  to  the 

subject  I  am  speaking  upon.     "  Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out 

God  ?     Canst  thou  find  out  the  Almighty  to  perfection  V* 
5 


84  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART   I. 

I  know  not  how  the  printers  have  pointed  this  passage,  for  I 
keep  no  Bible  ;  but  it  contains  two  distinct  questions,  that  admit 
of  distinct  answers. 

First — Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out  God  1  Yes  ;  because 
in  the  first  place,  I  know  I  did  not  make  myself,  and  yet  I  have 
existence ;  and  by  searching  into  the  nature  of  other  things,  I 
find  that  no  other  thing  could  make  itself;  and  yet  millions  of 
other  things  exist ;  therefore  it  is,  that  I  know,  by  positive  con- 
clusion resulting  from  this  search,  that  there  is  a  power  superior 
to  all  those  things,  and  that  power  is  God. 

Secondly — Canst  thou  find  out  the  Almighty  to  perfection  ? 
No  ;  not  only  because  the  power  and  wisdom  He  has  manifested 
in  the  structure  of  the  Creation  that  I  behold  is  to  me  incompre- 
hensible, but  because  even  this  manifestation,  great  as  it  is,  is 
probably  but  a  small  display  of  that  immensity  of  power  and  wis- 
dom, by  which  millions  of  other  worlds,  to  me  invisible  by  their 
distance,  were  created  and  continue  to  exist. 

It  is  evident  that  both  of  these  questions  are  put  to  the  reason 
of  the  person  to  whom  they  are  supposed  to  have  been  addressed; 
and  it  is  only  by  admitting  the  first  question  to  be  answered 
affirmatively,  that  the  second  could  follow.  It  would  have  been 
unnecessary,  and  even  absurd,  to  have  put  a  second  question 
more  difficult  than  the  first,  if  the  first  question  had  been  answered 
negatively.  The  two  questions  have  different  objects  ;  the  first 
refers  to  the  existence  of  God,  the  second  to  his  attributes  ; 
reason  can  discover  the  one,  but  it  falls  infinitely  short  in  dis- 
covering the  whole  of  the  other. 

I  recollect  not  a  single  passage  in  all  the  writings  ascribed  to 
the  men  called  apostles,  that  convey  any  idea  of  what  God  is. 
Those  writings  are  chiefly  controversial ;  and  the  subject  they 
dwell  upon,  that  of  a  man  dying  in  agony  on  a  cross,  is  better 
suited  to  the  gloomy  genius  of  a  monk  in  a  cell,  by  whom  it  is  not 
impossible  they  were  written,  than  to  aijy  man  breathing  the  open 
air  of  the  Creation.  The  only  passage  that  occurs  to  me,  that  has 
any  reference  to  the  works  of  God,  by  which  only  his  power  and 
wisdom  can  be  known,  is  related  to  have  been  spoken  by  Jesus 
Christ,  as  a  remedy  against  distrustful  care.  '*  Behold  the  lilies 
of  the  field,  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin."  This,  however, 
is  far  inferior  to  the  allusions  in  Job  and  in  the  19th  Psalm  ;  but 


JART    I.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  35 

it  is  similar  in  idea,  and  the  modesty  of  the  imagery  is  correspon- 
dent to  the  modesty  of  the  man. 

As  to  the  Christian  system  of  faith,  it  appears  to  me  as  a  species 
of  atheism — a  sort  of  rehgious  denial  of  God.  It  professes  to  be- 
lieve in  a  man  rather  than  in  God.  It  is  a  compound  made  up 
chiefly  of  manism  with  but  little  deism,  and  is  as  near  to  atheism 
as  twilight  is  to  darkness.  It  introduces  between  man  and  his 
Maker  an  opaque  body,  which  it  calls  a  Redeemer,  as  the  moon 
introduces  her  opaque  self  between  the  earth  and  the  sun,  and  it 
produces  by  this  means  a  religious  or  an  irreligious  eclipse  of  light. 
It  has  put  the  whole  orbit  of  reason  into  shade. 

The  cflTect  of  this  obscurity  has  been  that  of  turning  every  thing 
upside  down,  and  representing  it  in  reverse  ;  and  among  the  re- 
volutions it  has  thus  magically  produced,  it  has  made  a  revolution 
in  Theology. 

That  which  is  now  called  natural  philosophy,  embracing  the 
whole  circle  of  science,  of  which  Astronomy  occupies  the  chief 
place,  is  the  study  of  the  works  of  God,  and  of  the  power  and  wis- 
dom of  God  in  his  works,  and  is  the  true  theology. 

As  to  the  theology  that  is  now  studied  in  its  place,  it  is  the 
study  of  human  opinions,  and  of  human  fancies  concerning  God. 
It  is  not  the  study  of  God  himself  in  the  works  that  he  has  made, 
but  in  the  works  or  writings  that  man  has  made ;  and  it  is  not 
among  the  least  of  the  mischiefs  that  the  Christian  system  has 
done  to  the  world,  that  it  has  abandoned  the  original  and  beautiful 
system  of  theology,  like  a  beautiful  innocent,  to  distress  and  re 
proach,  to  make  room  for  the  hag  of  superstition. 

The  book  of  Job,  and  the  19th  Psalm,  which  even  the  church 
admits  to  be  more  ancient  than  the  chronological  order  in  which 
they  stand  in  the  book  called  the  Bible,  are  theological  orations 
conformable  to  the  original  system  of  theology.  The  internal 
evidence  of  those  orations  proves  to  a  demonstration  that  the 
study  and  contemplation  of  the  works  of  Creation,  and  of  the 
power  and  wisdom  of  God,  revealed  and  manifested  in  those 
works,  made  a  great  part  of  the  religious  devotion  of  the  times  in 
which  they  were  written ;  and  it  was  this  devotional  study  and 
contemplation  that  led  to  the  discovery  of  the  principles  upon 
which,  what  are  now  called  Sciences,  are  established ;  and  it  is  to 
the  discovery  of  these  principles  that  almost  all  the  Arts  that  con- 
oibute  to  the  convenience  of  human  life,  owe  their  existence. 


36  THE   AGE   OF   REASON.  [pART   I^ 

Every  pnncipal  art  has  some  science  for  its  parent,  though  the 
person  who  mechanically  performs  the  work  does  not  always,  and 
but  very  seldom,  perceive  the  connexion. 

It  is  a  fraud  of  the  Christian  system  to  call  the  sciences  human 
invention  ;  it  »s  only  the  application  of  them  that  is  human.  Every 
science  has  for  its  basis  a  system  of  principles  as  fixed  and  unal- 
terable as  those  by  which  the  universe  is  regulated  and  governed. 
Man  cannot  make  principles,  he  can  only  discover  them. 

For  example — Every  person  who  looks  at  an  Almanack  sees  an 
account  when  an  eclipse  will  take  place,  and  he  sees  also  that  it 
never  fails  to  take  place  according  to  the  account  there  given. 
This  shows  that  man  is  acquainted  with  the  laws  by  which  the 
heavenly  bodies  move.  But  it  would  be  something  worse  than 
ignorance,  were  any  church  on  earth  to  say,  that  those  laws  are  a 
human  invention.  It  would  also  be  ignorance,  or  something 
worse,  to  say  that  the  scientific  principles,  by  the  aid  of  which 
man  is  enabled  to  calculate  and  foreknow  when  an  eclipse  will 
take  place,  are  a  human  invention.  Man  cannot  invent  and 
thing  that  is  eternal  and  immutable  ;  and  the  scientific  principles 
he  employs  for  this  purpose  must,  and  are,  of  necessity,  as  eternal 
and  immutable  as  the  laws  by  which  the  heavenly  bodies  move,  or 
they  could  not  be  used  as  they  are  to  ascertain  the  time  when,  and 
the  manner  how,  an  eclipse  will  take  place. 

The  scientific  principles  that  man  employs  to  obtain  the  fore- 
knowledge of  an  eclipse,  or  of  any  thing  else,  relating  to  the  mo- 
tion of  the  heavenly  bodies,  are  contained  chiefly  in  that  part  of  sci- 
ence which  is  called  Trigonometry,  or  the  properties  of  a  triangle, 
which  when  applied  to  the  study  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  is  called 
Astronomy  ;  when  applied  to  direct  the  course  of  a  ship  on  the 
ocean,  it  is  called  Navigation ;  when  applied  to  the  construction 
of  figures  drawn  by  rule  and  compass,  it  is  called  Geometry ;  when 
applied  to  the  construction  of  plans  of  edifices,  it  is  called  Archi- 
tecture ;  when  applied  to  the  measurement  of  any  portion  of  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  it  is  called  Land-surveying.  In  fine,  it  is 
the  soul  of  science ;  it  is  an  eternal  truth  ;  it  contains  the  mathc' 
matical  demonstration  of  which  man  speaks,  and  the  extent  of  its 
uses  is  unknown. 

It  may  be  said,  that  man  can  make  or  draw  a  triangle,  and  there- 
fore a  triangle  is  an  human  invention 


PART  I.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  37 

But  the  triangle,  when  drawn,  is  no  other  than  the  image  of  the 
principle  ;  it  is  a  delineation  to  the  eye,  and  from  thence  to  the 
mind,  of  a  principle  that  would  otherwise  be  imperceptible.  The 
triangle  does  not  make  the  principle,  any  more  than  a  candle 
taken  into  a  room  that  was  dark,  makes  the  chairs  and  tables  that 
before  were  invisible.  All  the  properties  of  a  triangle  exist  inde- 
pendently of  the  figure,  and  existed  before  any  triangle  was  drawn 
or  thought  of  by  man.  Man  had  no  more  to  do  in  the  formation 
of  those  properties  or  principles,  than  he  had  to  do  in  making  the 
laws  by  which  the  heavenly  bodies  move  ;  and  therefore  the  one 
must  have  the  same  divine  origin  as  the  other. 

In  the  same  manner  as  it  may  be  said,  that  man  can  make  a 
triangle,  so  also  may  it  be  said,  he  can  make  the  mechanical  in- 
strument called  a  lever;  but  the  principle,  by  which  the  lever  acts 
IS  a  thing  distinct  from  the  instrument,  and  would  exist  if  the  in- 
strument did  not :  it  attaches  itself  to  the  instrument  after  it  is 
made  ;  the  instrument,  therefore,  can  act  no  otherwise  than  it 
does  act ;  neither  can  all  the  efforts  of  human  invention  make  it 
act  otherwise — that  which,  in  all  such  cases,  man  calls  the  effect^ 
is  no  other  than  the  principle  itself  rendered  perceptible  to  the 


Since  then  man  cannot  make  principles,  from  whence  did  he 
gain  a  knowledge  of  them,  so  as  to  be  able  to  apply  them,  not 
only  to  things  on  earth,  but  to  ascertain  the  motion  of  bodies  so 
immensely  distant  from  him  as  all  the  heavenly  bodies  are? 
From  whence,  I  ask,  could  he  gain  that  knowledge,  but  from  the 
study  of  the  true  theology  ? 

It  is  the  structure  of  the  universe  that  has  taught  this  know- 
ledge to  man.  That  structure  is  an  ever-existing  exhibition  of 
every  principle  upon  which  every  part  of  mathematical  science  is 
founded.  The  offspring  of  this  science  is  mechanics  ;  for  me 
chanics  is  no  other  than  the  principles  of  science  applied  practi- 
cally. The  man  who  proportions  the  several  parts  of  a  mill,  uses 
the  same  scientific  principles,  as  if  he  had  the  power  of  construct- 
ing an  universe ;  but  as  he  cannot  give  to  matter  that  invisible 
agency,  by  which  all  the  components  parts  of  the  immense  ma- 
chine of  the  universe  have  influenced  upon  each  other  and  act  in 
motional  unison  together,  without  any  apparent  contact,  and  to 
which  man  has  given  the  name  of  attraction,  gravitation,  and  re- 
pulsion, he  supplies  the  place  of  that  agency  by  the  humble  imi 


38  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART    I. 

tation  of  teeth  and  cogs- — All  the  parts  of  man's  microcosm  mu9t 
visibly  touch  :  but  could  he  gain  a  knowledge  of  that  agency,  so 
as  to  be  able  to  apply  it  in  practice,  we  might  then  say,  that  ano- 
ther canonical  book  of  the  word  of  God  had  been  discovered. 

If  man  could  alter  the  properties  of  the  lever,  so  also  could  he 
alter  the  properties  of  the  triangle  :  for  a  lever  (taking  that  sort  of 
lever  which  is  called  a  steel-yard,  for  the  sake  of  explanation) 
forms,  when  in  motion,  a  triangle.  The  line  it  descends  from, 
(one  point  of  that  line  being  in  the  fulcrum,)  the  line  it  descends 
to,  and  the  cord  of  the  arc,  which  the  end  of  the  lever  describes 
in  the  air,  are  the  three  sides  of  a  triangle.  The  other  arm  of  the 
lever  describes  also  a  triangle ;  and  the  corresponding  sides  of 
those  two  triangles,  calculated  scientifically,  or  measured  geome- 
trically :  and  also  the  sines,  tangents,  and  secants  generated  from 
the  angles,  and  geometrically  measured,  have  the  same  proportions 
to  each  other,  as  the  different  weights  have  that  will  balance  each 
other  on  the  lever,  leaving  the  weight  of  the  lever  out  of  the  case 

It  may  also  be  said,  that  man  can  make  a  wheel  and  axis , 
that  he  can  put  wheels  of  different  magnitudes  together,  and  pro 
duce  a  mill.  Still  the  case  comes  back  to  the  same  point,  which 
is,  that  he  did  not  make  the  principle  that  gives  the  wheels  those 
powers.  That  principle  is  as  unalterable  as  in  the  former  case, 
or  rather  it  is  the  same  principle  under  a  different  appearance  to 
the  eye. 

The  power  that  two  wheels,  of  different  magnitudes,  have  upon 
each  other,  is  in  the  same  proportion  as  if  the  semi-diameter  of  the 
two  wheels  were  joined  together  and  made  into  that  kind  of  lever 
I  have  described,  suspended  at  the  part  where  the  semi-diameters 
join ;  for  the  two  wheels,  scientifically  considered,  are  no  other 
than  the  two  circles  generated  by  the  motion  of  the  compound 
lever. 

It  is  from  the  study  of  the  true  theology  that  all  our  knowledge 
of  science  is  derived,  and  it  is  from  that  knowledge  that  all  the 
arts  have  originated. 

The  Almighty  lecturer,  by  displaying  the  principles  of  science 
in  the  structure  of  the  universe,  has  invited  man  to  study  and  to 
imitation.  It  is  as  if  he  had  said  to  the  inhabitants  of  this  globe, 
that  we  call  ours,  "  I  have  made  an  earth  for  man  to  dwell  upon, 
and  I  have  rendered  the  starry  heavens  visible,  to  teach  him 
science  and  the  arts.     He  can  now  provide  for  his  own  comfort 


FART  I.J  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  39 

AND    LEARN    FROM    MY    MUNIFCIENCE    TO    ALL,  TO    BE    KIND    TO 
EACH    OTHER.'* 

Of  what  use  is  it,  unless  it  be  to  teach  man  something,  that  his 
eye  is  endowed  with  the  power  of  beholding,  to  an  incomprehen- 
sible distance,  an  immensity  of  worlds  revolving  in  the  ocean  of 
space  ?  Or  of  what  u:«e  .s  it  that  this  immensity  of  worlds  is  visi- 
ble to  man  ?  What  has  man  to  do  with  the  Pleiades,  with  Orion, 
with  Sinus,  with  the  star  he  calls  the  north  star,  with  the  moving 
orbs  he  has  named  Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  Venus,  and  Mercury, 
if  no  uses  are  to  follow  from  their  being  visible  ?  A  less  power 
of  vision  would  have  been  sufficient  for  man,  if  the  immensity  he 
now  possesses  were  given  only  to  waste  itself,  as  it  were,  on  an 
immense  desert  of  space  glittering  with  shows. 

It  is  only  by  contemplating  what  he  calls  the  starry  heavens,  as 
the  book  and  school  of  science,  that  he  discovers  any  use  in  their 
being  visible  to  him,  or  any  advantage  resulting  from  his  immen- 
sity of  vision.  But  when  he  contemplates  the  subject  in  this 
light,  he  sees  an  additional  motive  for  saying,  that  nothing  was 
made  in  vain ;  for  in  vain  would  be  this  power  of  vision  if  it 
taught  man  nothing. 

As  the  Christian  system  of  faith  has  made  a  revolution  in  theo- 
logy, so  also  has  it  made  a  revolution  in  the  state  of  learning. 
That  which  is  now  called  learning,  was  not  learning,  originally. 
Learning  does  not  consist,  as  the  schools  now  make  it  consist,  in 
the  knowledge  of  languages,  but  in  the  knowledge  of  things  to 
which  language  gives  names. 

The  Greeks  were  a  learned  people,  but  learnmg  with  them  did 
not  consist  in  speaking  Greek,  any  more  than  in  a  Roman's  speak- 
ing Latin,  or  a  Frenchman's  speaking  French,  or  an  Englishman's 
speaking  English.  From  what  we  know  of  the  Greeks,  it  does 
not  appear  that  they  knew  or  studied  any  language  but  their  own, 
and  this  was  one  cause  of  their  becoming  so  learned  ;  it  afforded 
them  more  time  to  apply  themselves  to  better  studies.  The 
schools  of  the  Greeks  were  schools  of  science  and  philosophy, 
and  not  of  languages  ;  and  it  is  in  the  knowledge  of  the  things 
that  science  and  philosophy  teach,  that  learning  consists. 

Almost  all  the  scientific  learning  that  now  exists,  came  to  U3 
from  the  Greeks,  or  the  people  who  spoke  the  Greek  language. — 
It,  therefore,  became  necessary  for  the  people  of  other  nations, 
who  spoke  a  different  language,  that  some  among  them  should 


40  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART  I. 

learn  the  Greek  language,  in  order  that  the  learning  the  Greeks 
had,  might  be  made  known  in  those  nations,  by  translating  the 
Greek  books  of  science  and  philosophy  into  the  mother  tongue  of 
each  nation. 

The  study,  therefore,  of  the  Greek  language  (and  in  the  same 
manner  for  the  Latin)  was  no  other  than  the  dmdgery  business  of  a 
linguist ;  and  the  language  thus  obtained,  was  no  other  than  the 
means,  as  it  were  the  tools,  employed  to  oblain  the  learning  the 
Greeks  had.  It  made  no  part  of  the  learning  itself;  and  was  so 
distinct  from  it,  as  to  make  it  exceedingly  probable  that  the  per- 
sons who  had  studied  Greek  sufficiently  to  translate  those  works, 
such,  for  instance,  as  Euclid's  Elements,  did  not  understand 
any  of  the  learning  the  works  contained. 

As  there  is  now  nothing  new  to  be  learned  from  the  dead  lan- 
guages, all  the  useful  books  being  already  translated,  the  lan- 
guages are  become  useless,  and  the  time  expended  in  teaching 
and  learning  them  is  wasted.  So  far  as  the  study  of  languages 
may  contribute  to  the  progress  and  communication  of  knowledge, 
(for  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  creation  of  knowledge,)  it  is  only 
m  the  living  languages  that  new  knowledge  is  to  be  found ;  and 
certain  it  is,  that,  in  general,  a  youth  will  learn  more  of  a  living 
language  in  one  year,  than  of  a  dead  language  in  seven  ;  and  it  is 
but  seldom  that  the  teacher  knows  much  of  it  himself.  The  diffi- 
culty of  learning  the  dead  languages  does  not  arise  from  any  supe- 
rior abstruseness  in  the  languages  themselves,  but  in  their  being 
dead,  and  the  pronunciation  entirely  lost.  It  would  be  the  same 
thing  with  any  other  language  when  it  becomes  dead.  The  best 
Greek  linguist  that  now  exists,  does  not  understand  GreeK  so  well 
as  a  Grecian  ploughman  did,  or  a  Grecian  milkmaid :  and  the 
same  for  the  Latin,  compared  with  a  ploughman  or  milkmaid  of 
the  Romans  ;  it  would  therefore  be  advantageous  to  the  state  of 
learning  to  abolish  the  study  of  the  dead  languages,  and  to  make 
learning  consist,  as  it  originally  did,  in  scientific  knowledge. 

The  apology  thai  ^j?  sometimes  made  for  continuing  to  teach 
the  dead  languages  is,  thai  they  are  taught  at  a  time,  when  a  child 
is  not  capable  of  exerting  any  other  mental  faculty  than  that  of 
memory;  but  that  is  altogether  erroneous.  The  human  mind 
has  a  natural  disposition  to  scientific  knowledge,  and  to  the  things 
connected  with  it.  The  first  and  favourite  amusement  of  a  child, 
even  before  it  begins  to  play,  is  that  of  imitating  the  works  of  maot 


PART    I.]  THE    ACE    OF    REASON.  41 

It  builds  houses  with  cards  or  sticks  ;  it  navigates  the  little  ocean 
of  a  bowl  of  water  with  a  paper  boat,  or  dams  the  stream  of  a 
gutter,  and  contrives  something  which  it  calls  a  mill ;  and  it  in- 
terests itself  in  the  fate  of  its  works  with  a  care  that  resembles 
affection.  It  afterwards  goes  to  school,  where  its  genius  is  killed 
by  the  barren  study  of  a  dead  language,  and  the  philosopher  is  lost 
in  the  linguist. 

But  the  apology  that  is  now  made  for  continuing  to  teach  the 
dead  languages,  could  not  be  the  cause,  at  first,  of  cutting  down 
learning  to  the  narrow  and  humble  sphere  of  linguistry  ;  the  cause, 
therefore,  must  be  sought  for  elsewhere.  In  all  researches  oi 
this  kind,  the  best  evidence  that  can  be  produced,  is  the  internal 
evidence  the  thing  carries  with  itself,  and  the  evidence  of  cir- 
cumstances that  unites  with  it ;  both  of  which,  in  this  case,  are 
not  difficult  to  be  discovered. 

Putting  then  aside,  as  a  matter  of  distinct  consideration,  the 
outrage  offered  to  the  moral  justice  of  God,  by  supposing  him  to 
make  the  innocent  suffer  for  the  guilty,  and  also  the  loose  mo- 
rality and  low  contrivance  of  supposing  him  to  change  himself  into 
the  shape  of  a  man,  in  order  to  make  an  excuse  to  himself  for  not 
executing  his  supposed  sentence  upon  Adam ;  putting,  I  say, 
those  things  aside  as  matter  of  distinct  consideration,  it  is  certain 
that  what  is  called  the  Christian  system  of  faith,  including  in  it  the 
whimsical  account  of  the  creation — the  strange  story  of  Eve — the 
snake  and  the  apple — the  ambiguous  idea  of  a  man-god — the  cor- 
poreal idea  of  the  death  of  a  god — the  mythological  idea  of  a 
family  of  gods,  and  the  Christian  system  of  arithmetic,  that  three 
are  one,  and  one  is  three,  are  all  irreconcilable,  not  only  to  the 
divine  gift  of  reason,  that  God  hath  given  to  Man,  but  to  the 
knowledge  that  man  gains  of  the  power  and  wisdom  of  God,  by 
the  aid  of  the  sciences,  and  by  studying  the  structure  of  the  uni- 
verse that  God  has  made. 

The  setters-up,  therefore,  and  the  advocates  of  the  Christian 
system  of  faith,  could  not  but  foresee  that  the  continually  progres- 
sive knowledge  that  man  would  gain,  by  the  aid  of  science,  of  the 
power  and  wisdom  of  God,  manifested  in  the  structure  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  in  all  the  works  of  Creation,  would  militate  against, 
and  call  into  question,  the  truth  of  their  system  of  faith ;  and 
therefore  it  became  necessary  to  their  purpose  to  cut  learning 
down  to  a  size  less  dangerous  to  their  project,  and  this  they 
6 


42  THE    AGE    OF    REASON  [PART    1. 

effected  by  restricting  the  idea  of  learning  to  the  dead  study  ot 
dead  languages. 

They  not  only  rejected  the  study  of  science  out  of  the  Christian 
schools,  but  they  persecuted  it ;  and  it  is  only  within  about  the 
last  two  centuries  that  the  study  has  been  revived.  So  late  as 
1610,  Galileo,  a  Florentine,  discovered  and  introduced  the  use 
of  telescopes,  and  by  applying  them  to  observe  the  motions  and 
appearance  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  afforded  additional  means  for 
ascertaining  the  true  structure  of  the  universe.  Instead  of  being 
esteemed  for  those  discoveries,  he  was  sentenced  to  renounce 
them,  or  the  opinions  resulting  from  them,  as  a  damnable  heresy. 
And,  prior  to  that  time,  Vigilius  was  condemned  to  be  burned  for 
asserting  the  antipodes,  or  in  other  words,  that  the  earth  was  a 
globe,  and  habitable  in  every  part  where  there  was  land  ;  yet  the 
truth  of  this  is  now  too  well  known  even  to  be  told. 

If  the  belief  of  errors  not  morally  bad  did  no  mischief,  it  would 
make  no  part  of  the  moral  duty  of  man  to  oppose  and  remove 
them.  There  was  no  moral  ill  in  believing  the  earth  was  flat 
like  a  trencher,  any  more  than  there  was  moral  virtue  in 
believing  that  it  was  round  like  a  globe  ;  neither  was  there  any 
moral  ill  in  believing  that  the  Creator  made  no  other  world  than 
this,  any  more  than  there  was  moral  virtue  in  believing  that  he  made 
millions,  and  that  the  infinity  of  space  is  filled  with  worlds.  But 
when  a  system  of  religion  is  made  to  grow  out  of  a  supposed 
system  of  creation  that  is  not  true,  and  to  unite  itself  therewith  in 
a  manner  almost  inseparable  therefrom,  the  case  assumes  an  en- 
tirely different  ground.  It  is  then  that  errors,  not  morally  bad, 
become  fraught  with  the  same  mischiefs  as  if  they  were.  It  is 
then  that  the  truth,  though  otherwise  indifferent  itself,  becomes 
an  essential,  by  becoming  the  criterion,  that  either  confirms  by 
corresponding  evidence,  or  denies  by  contradictory  evidence,  the 
reality  of  the  religion  itself.  In  this  view  of  the  case,  it  is  the 
moral  duty  of  man  to  obtain  every  possible  evidence  that  the 
structure  of  the  heavens,  or  any  other  part  of  creation  affords, 
with  respect  to  systems  of  religion.  But  this,  the  supporters  or 
partizans  of  the  Christian  system,  as  if  dreading  the  result,  inces 
santly  opposed,  and  not  only  rejected  the  sciences,  but  persecuted 
the  professors.  Had  Newton  or  Descartes  lived  three  or  four 
hundred  years  ago,  and  pursued  their  studies  as  they  did,  it  is 
most  probable  they  would  not  have  lived  to  finish  them  ;  and  had 


PART  I.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  43 

Franklin  drawn  lightning  from  the  clouds  at  the  same  time,  it 
would  have  been  at  the  hazard  of  expiring  for  it  in  flames. 

Later  times  have  laid  all  the  blame  upon  the  Goths  and  Vandals ; 
but,  however  unwilling  the  partizans  of  the  Christian  system  may 
be  to  believe  or  to  acknowledge  it,  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  the 
age  of  ignorance  commenced  with  the  Christian  system. — There 
was  more  knowledge  in  the  world  before  that  period,  than  for 
many  centuries  afterwards ;  and  as  to  religious  knowledge,  the 
Christian  system,  as  already  said,  was  only  another  species  of 
mythology  ;  and  the  mythology  to  which  it  succeeded,  was  a  cor- 
ruption of  an  ancient  system  of  theism.* 

It  is  owing  to  this  long  interregnum  of  science,  and  to  no  other 
cause,  that  we  have  now  to  look  through  a  vast  chasm  of  many 
hundred  years  to  the  respectable  characters  we  call  the  ancients. — 
Had  the  progression  of  knowledge  gone  on  proportionably  with 
the  stock  that  before  existed,  that  chasm  would  have  been  filled 
up  with  characters  rising  superior  in  knowledge  to  each  other ;  and 
those  ancients  we  now  so  much  admire,  would  have  appeared 
respectably  in  the  back  ground  of  the  scene.  But  the  Christian 
system  laid  all  waste  ;  and  if  we  take  our  stand  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixteenth  century,  we  look  back  through  that  long 
chasm,  to  the  times  of  the  ancients,  as  over  a  vast  sandy  desart, 
in  which  not  a  shrub  appears  to  intercept  the  vision  to  the  fertile 
hills  beyond. 

*  It  is  impossible  for  us  now  to  know  at  what  time  the  heathen  mythology 
began ;  but  it  is  certain,  from  the  internal  evidence  that  it  carries,  that  it  did 
not  begin  in  the  same  state  or  condition  in  which  it  ended.  All  the  gods  of 
that  mythology,  except  Saturn,  were  of  modern  invention.  The  supposed 
reign  of  Saturn  was  prior  to  that  which  is  called  the  heathen  mythology,  and 
was  so  far  a  species  of  theism,  that  it  admitted  the  belief  of  only  one  God. 
Saturn  is  supposed  to  have  abdicated  the  government  in  favorof  his  three  sons 
and  one  daughter,  Jupiter,  Pluto,  Neptune,  and  Juno  ;  after  this,  thousands  of 
other  gods  and  demi-gods  were  imagmarily  created,  and  the  calendar  of  gods 
increased  as  fast  as  the  calendar  of  saints,  and  the  calendars  of  courts  hava 
increased  since. 

All  the  corruptions  that  have  taken  place,  in  theology  and  in  religion,  have 
been  produced  by  admitting  of  what  man  calls  revealed  religion.  The  Mytho- 
logists  pretended  to  more  revealed  religion  than  the  Christians  do.  They  had 
their  oracles  and  their  priests,  who  were  supposed  to  receive  and  deliver  the 
word  of  God  verbally,  on  almost  all  occasions. 

Since  then  all  corruptions  down  from  Molock  to  modem  predestinarianism, 
and  the  human  sacrifices  of  the  heathens  to  the  Christian  sacrifice  of  the  Crea- 
tor,  have  been  produced  by  admitting  of  what  is  called  revealed  religion,  the 
most  effectual  means  to  prevent  all  such  evils  and  impositions  is,  not  to  admit 
of  any  other  revelation  Uian  that  which  is  manifested  in  the  book  of  creation, 
and  to  contemplate  the  creation  as  the  only  true  and  real  work  of  God  that 
ever  did,  or  ever  will  exist ;  and  that  every  thing  else,  called  the  word  of  God, 
is  fable  and  imposition. 


44  THE   AGE   OP   REASON.  [pART   I. 

It  is  an  inconsistency  scarcely  possible  to  be  credited,  that  any 
thing  should  exist,  under  the  name  of  a  religion,  that  held  it  to  be 
irreligious  to  study  and  contemplate  the  structure  of  the  universe 
that  God  had  made.  But  the  fact  is  too  well  established  to  be 
denied.  The  event  that  served  more  than  any  other  to  break  the 
first  link  in  this  long  chain  of  despotic  ignorance,  is  that  known  by 
the  name  of  the  Reformation  by  Luther.  From  that  time,  though 
it  does  not  appear  to  have  made  any  part  of  the  intention  of 
Luther,  or  of  those  who  are  called  reformers,  the  sciences  began 
to  revive,  and  liberality,  their  natural  associate,  began  to  appear. 
This  was  the  only  public  good  the  Reformation  did  ;  for,  with 
respect  to  religious  good,  it  might  as  well  not  have  taken  place. 
The  mythology  still  continued  the  same  ;  and  a  multiplicity  of 
National  Popes  grew  out  of  the  downfall  of  the  Pope  of  Christ- 
endom. 

Having  thus  shown  from  the  internal  evidence  of  things,  the 
cause  that  produced  a  change  in  the  state  of  learning,  and  the 
motive  for  substituting  the  study  of  dead  languages,  in  the  place 
of  the  sciences,  I  proceed,  in  addition  to  the  several  observations, 
already  made  in  the  former  part  of  this  work,  to  compare,  or  rather 
to  confront  the  evidence  that  the  structure  of  the  universe  affords, 
with  the  Christian  system  of  religion  ;  but,  as  I  cannot  begin  this 
part  better  than  by  referring  to  the  ideas  that  occurred  to  me  at 
an  early  part  of  life,  and  which  I  doubt  not  have  occurred  in  some 
degree  to  almost  every  other  person  at  one  time  or  other,  I  shall 
state  what  those  ideas  were,  and  add  thereto  such  other  matter 
as  shall  arise  out  of  the  subject,  giving  to  the  whole,  by  way  of 
preface,  a  short  introduction. 

My  father  being  of  the  Quaker  profession,  it  was  my  good 
fortune  to  have  an  exceeding  good  moral  education,  and  a  tolera- 
ble stock  of  useful  learning.  Though  I  went  to  the  grammar 
school,*  I  did  not  learn  Latin,  not  only  because  I  had  no  inclina- 
tion to  learn  languages,  but  because  of  the  objection  the  Quakers 
have  against  the  books  in  which  the  language  is  taught.  But  this 
did  not  prevent  me  from  being  acquainted  with  the  subjects  of  all 
the  Latin  books  used  in  the  school. 

The  natural  bent  of  my  mind  was  to  science.     I  had  some 


*  The  same  school,  Thetford  in  Norfolk,  that  the  present  Counsellor  Min- 
gay  went  to,  and  under  the  same  master. 


FART  I.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  45 

turn,  and  I  believe  some  talent  for  poetry  ;  but  this  I  rather 
repressed  than  encouraged,  as  leading  too  much  into  the  field  of 
imagination.  As  soon  as  I  was  able,  I  purchased  a  pair  of  globes, 
and  attended  the  philosophical  lectures  of  Martin  and  Ferguson, 
and  became  afterwards  acquainted  with  Dr.  Bevis,  of  the  society, 
called  the  Royal  Society,  then  living  in  the  Temple,  and  an  excel- 
lent astronomer. 

I  had  no  disposition  for  what  is  called  politics.  It  presented 
to  my  mind  no  other  idea  than  is  contained  in  the  woi '  Jockeyship 
When,  therefore,  I  turned  my  thoughts  towards  matters  of  gov 
emment,  I  had  to  form  a  system  for  myself,  that  accorded  with 
the  moral  and  philosophic  principles  in  which  I  had  been  educated. 
I  saw  or  at  least  I  thought  I  saw,  a  vast  scene  opening  itself  to 
the  world  in  the  affairs  of  America;  and  it  appeared  to  me,  that 
unless  the  Americans  changed  the  plan  they  were  then  pursuing, 
with  respect  to  the  government  of  England,  and  declared  them- 
selves independent,  they  would  not  only  involve  themselves  in  a 
multiplicity  of  new  difficulties,  but  shut  out  the  prospect  that  was 
then  offering  itself  to  mankind  through  their  means.  It  was  from 
these  motives  that  I  published  the  work  known  by  the  name  of 
"  Common  Sense,"  which  is  the  first  work  I  ever  did  publish ;  and 
so  far  as  I  can  judge  of  myself,  I  believe  I  should  never  have  been 
known  in  the  world  as  an  author,  on  any  subject  whatever,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  affairs  of  America.  I  wrote  "  Common  Sense" 
the  latter  end  of  the  year  1775,  and  published  it  the  first  of  Janu- 
ary, 1776.  Independence  was  declared  the  fourth  of  July  fol- 
lowing. 

Any  person,  who  has  made  observations  on  the  state  and  pro- 
gress of  the  human  mind,  by  observing  his  own,  cannot  but  have 
observed,  that  there  are  two  distinct  classes  of  what  are  called 
Thoughts  ;  those  that  we  produce  in  ourselves  by  reflection  and 
the  act  of  thinking,  and  those  that  bolt  into  the  mind  of  their  own 
accord.  I  have  always  made  it  a  rule  to  treat  those  voluntary 
visitors  with  civility,  taking  care  to  examine,  as  well  as  I  was 
able,  if  they  were  worth  entertaining ;  and  it  is  from  them  I  have 
acquired  almost  all  the  knowledge  that  I  have.  As  to  the  learning 
that  any  person  gains  from  school  education,  it  serves  only,  like  a 
small  capital,  to  put  him  in  the  way  of  beginning  learning  for  him- 
self afterwards. — Every  person  of  learning  is  finally  his  own 
teacher,  the  reason  of  which  is,  that  principles,  being  of  a  distinct 


46  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART  U 

quality  to  circumstances,  cannot  be  impressed  upon  the  memory  • 
their  place  of  mental  residence  is  the  understanding,  and  they  are 
never  so  lasting  as  when  they  begin  by  conception.  Thus  much 
for  the  'utroductory  part. 

From  the  time  I  was  capable  of  conceiving  an  idea,  and  actmg 
upon  it  by  reflection,  I  either  doubted  the  truth  of  the  Christian 
system,  or  thought  it  to  be  a  strange  affair ;  I  scarcely  knew 
which  it  was  :  but  I  well  remember,  when  about  seven  or  eight 
years  of  age,  hearing  a  sermon  read  by  a  relation  of  mine,  who 
was  a  great  devotee  of  the  church,  upon  the  subject  of  what  is 
called  redemption  bij  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God.  After  the  ser- 
mon was  ended,  I  went  into  the  garden,  and  as  I  was  going  down 
the  garden  steps  (for  I  perfectly  recollect  the  spot)  I  revolted  at 
the  recollection  of  what  I  had  heard,  and  thought  to  myself  that  it 
was  making  God  Almighty  act  like  a  passionate  man,  that 
killed  his  son,  when  he  could  not  revenge  himself  any  other  way; 
and  as  I  was  sure  a  man  would  be  hanged  that  did  such  a  thing,  I 
could  not  see  for  what  purpose  they  preached  such  sermons.  This 
was  not  one  of  those  kind  of  thoughts  that  had  any  thing  in  it  of 
childish  levity  ;  it  was  to  me  a  serious  reflection,  arising  from  the 
idea  I  had,  that  God  was  too  good  to  do  such  an  action,  and  also 
too  almighty  to  be  under  any  necessity  of  doing  it.  I  believe  in 
the  same  manner  at  this  moment ;  and  I  moreover  believe,  that 
any  system  of  religion  that  has  any  thing  in  it  that  shocks  the 
mind  of  a  child,  cannot  be  a  true  system. 

It  seems  as  if  parents  of  the  Christian  profession  were  ashamed 
to  tell  their  children  any  thing  about  the  principles  of  their  religion. 
They  sometimes  instruct  them  in  morals,  and  talk  to  them  of  the 
goodness  of  what  they  call  Providence  ;  for  the  Christian  my- 
thology has  five  deities — there  is  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son, 
God  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  God  Providence,  and  the  Goddess  Na- 
ture. But  the  Christian  story  of  God  the  Father  putting  his  son 
to  death,  or  employing  people  to  do  it,  (for  that  is  the  plain  lan- 
guage of  the  story,)  cannot  be  told  by  a  parent  to  a  child  ;  and  to 
tell  him  that  it  was  done  to  make  mankind  happier  and  better,  is 
making  the  story  still  worse,  as  if  mankind  could  be  improved  by 
the  example  of  murder  ;  and  to  tell  him  that  all  this  is  a  mystery, 
is  only  making  an  excuse  for  the  mcredibility  of  it. 

How  different  is  this  to  the  pure  and  smple  profession  of 
Deism !     The  true  Deist  has  but  one  Deity     and  his  religion 


PART  1.]  THE   AGE    OP   REASON.  47 

consists  in  contemplating  the  power,  wisdom,  and  benignity  of 
the  Deity  in  his  works,  and  in  endeavoring  to  imitate  him  in  every 
thing  moral,  scientifical,  and  mechanical. 

The  religion  that  approaches  the  nearest  of  all  others  to  true 
Deism,  in  the  moral  and  benign  part  thereof,  is  that  professed  by 
the  Quakers  :  but  they  have  contracted  themselves  too  much,  by 
leaving  the  works  of  God  out  of  their  system.  Though  I  rever- 
ence their  philanthropy,  I  cannot  help  smiling  at  the  conceit,  that 
if  the  taste  of  a  Quaker  could  have  been  consulted  at  the  creation, 
what  a  silent  and  drab-colored  creation  it  would  have  been !  Not 
a  flower  would  have  blossomed  its  gaities,  nor  a  bird  been  permit- 
ted to  sing. 

Quitting  these  reflections,  I  proceed  to  other  matters.  After  1 
had  made  myself  master  of  the  use  of  the  globes,  and  of  the  or- 
rery,* and  conceived  an  idea  of  the  infinity  of  space,  and  the  eter- 
nal divisibility  of  matter,  and  obtained,  at  least,  a  general  know- 
ledge of  what  is  called  natural  philosophy,  I  began  to  compare, 
or,  as  I  have  before  said,  to  confront  the  eternal  evidence  those 
things  afford  with  the  Christian  system  of  faith. 

Though  it  is  not  a  direct  article  of  the  Christian  system,  that 
this  world  that  we  inhabit,  is  the  whole  of  the  habitable  creation, 
yet  it  is  so  worked  up  therewith,  from  what  is  called  the  Mosaic 
account  of  the  Creation,  the  story  of  Eve  and  the  apple,  and  the 
counterpart  of  that  story,  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God,  that  to  be- 
lieve otherwise,  that  is,  to  believe  that  God  created  a  plurality  ol 
worlds,  at  least  as  numerous  as  what  we  call  stars,  renders  the 
Christian  system  of  faith  at  once  little  and  ridiculous,  and  scatters 
it  in  the  mind  like  feathers  in  the  air.  The  two  beliefs  cannot  be 
held  together  in  the  same  mind  ;  and  he  who  thinks  that  he  be- 
lieves both,  has  thought  but  little  of  either. 

Though  the  belief  of  a  plurality  of  worlds  was  familar  to  the  an 
cients,  it  is  only  within  the  last  three  centuries  that  the  extent  and 
dimensions  of  this  globe  that  we  inhabit  have  been  ascertained.- -- 

*  As  this  book  may  fall  into  the  hands  of  persons  who  do  not  know  what  an 
orrery  is,  it  is  for  their  information  I  add  this  note,  as  the  name  gives  no  idea 
of  the  uses  of  the  tiling.  The  orrery  has  its  name  from  the  person  who  in 
Tented  it.  It  is  a  machinery  of  clock-work,  representing  the  universe  in  min- 
iature, and  in  which  the  revolution  of  the  earth  round  itself  and  round  the 
sun,  the  revolution  of  the  moon  round  the  earth,  the  revolution  of  the  planets 
round  the  sun,  their  relative  distances  from  the  sun,  as  the  centre  of  the  whole 
system,  their  relative  distances  from  each  other,  and  their  different  magni 
tudes,  are  represented  as  they  really  exist  in  what  we  call  the  heavens. 


48  THE   AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    F. 

Several  vessels,  following  the  tract  of  the  ocean,  have  sailed  en. 
tirely  round  the  world,  as  a  man  may  march  in  a  circle,  and  come 
round  by  the  contrary  side  of  the  circle  to  the  spot  he  set  out  from. 
The  circular  dimensions  of  our  world,  in  the  widest  part,  as  a  man 
would  measure  the  widest  round  of  an  apple,  or  a  ball,  is  only 
twenty-five  thousand  and  twenty  English  miles,  reckoning  sixty- 
nine  miles  and  an  half  to  an  equatorial  degree,  and  may  be  sailed 
round  in  the  space  of  about  three  years.* 

A  world  of  this  extent  may,  at  first  thought,  appear  to  us  to  be 
great ;  but  if  we  compare  it  with  the  immensity  of  space  in  which 
it  is  suspended,  like  a  bubble  or  balloon  in  the  air,  it  is  infinitely 
less,  in  proportion,  than  the  smallest  grain  of  sand  is  to  the  size  of 
the  world,  or  the  finest  particle  of  dew  to  the  whole  ocean,  and  is 
therefore  but  small ;  and,  as  will  be  hereafter  shown,  is  only  one 
of  a  system  of  worlds,  of  which  the  universal  creation  is  corn- 


It  is  not  difficult  to  gain  some  faint  idea  of  the  immensity  ot 
space  in  which  this  and  all  the  other  worlds  are  suspended,  if  we 
follow  a  progression  of  ideas.  When  we  think  of  the  size  or 
dimensions  of  a  room,  our  ideas  limit  themselves  to  the  walls,  and 
there  they  stop  ;  but  when  our  eye,  or  our  imagination  darts  into 
space,  that  is,  when  it  looks  upwards  into  what  we  call  the  open 
air,  we  cannot  conceive  any  walls  or  boundaries  it  can  have  ;  and 
if  for  the  sake  of  resting  our  ideas,  we  suppose  a  boundary,  the 
question  immediately  renews  itself,  and  asks,  what  is  beyond  that 
boundary  ?  and  in  the  same  manner,  what  beyond  the  next  boun- 
dary ?  and  so  on  till  the  fatigued  imagination  returns  and  says, 
there  is  no  end.  Certainly,  then,  the  Creator  was  not  pent  for 
room,  when  he  made  this  world  no  larger  than  it  is ;  and  we  have 
to  seek  the  reason  in  something  else. 

If  we  take  a  survey  of  our  ovra  world,  or  rather  of  this,  of  which 
the  Creator  has  given  us  the  use,  as  our  portion  in  the  immense 
system  of  Creation,  we  find  every  part  of  it,  the  earth,  the  waters, 
and  the  air  that  surroimds  it,  filled,  and,  as  it  were,  crowded  with 
life,  down  fi-om  the  largest  animals  that  we  know  of  to  the  smallest 
insects  the  naked  eye  can  behold,  and  from  thence  to  others  still 


*  Allowing  a  ship  to  sail,  on  an  average,  three  miles  in  an  hour,  she  would 
sail  entirely  round  tne  world  in  less  than  one  year,  if  she  could  sail  in  a  direct 
circle ;  but  she  is  obliged  to  follow  the  course  of  the  ocean. 


rARr    I.l  THE    AGE    OF    KEASOK.  49 

smaller,  and  totally  invisible  without  the  assistance  of  the  micro- 
scope. Every  tree,  every  plant,  every  leaf,  serves  not  only  as  an 
habitation,  but  as  a  world  to  some  numerous  race,  till  animal 
existence  becomes  so  exceedingly  refined,  that  the  effluvia  of  a 
blade  of  grass  would  be  food  for  thousands. 

Since  then  no  part  of  our  earth  is  left  unoccupied,  why  is  it  to 
be  supposed  that  the  immensity  of  space  is  a  naked  void,  lying  in 
eternal  waste  ?  There  is  room  for  millions  of  worlds  as  large  or 
larger  than  ours,  and  each  of  them  millions  of  miles  apart  from 
each  other. 

Havmg  now  arrived  at  this  point,  if  we  carry  our  ideas  only 
one  thought  further,  we  shall  see,  perhaps,  the  true  reason,  at 
least  a  very  good  reason,  for  our  happiness,  why  the  Creator,  in- 
stead of  making  one  immense  world,  extending  over  an  immense 
quantity  of  space,  has  preferred  dividing  that  quantity  of  matter 
into  several  distinct  and  separate  worlds,  which  we  call  planets, 
of  which  our  earth  is  one.  But  before  I  explain  my  ideas  upon 
this  subject,  it  is  necessary  (not  for  the  sake  of  those  that  already 
know,  but  for  those  who  do  not)  to  show  what  the  system  of  the 
universe  is. 

That  part  of  the  universe  tnat  is  called  the  solar  system  (mean- 
mg  the  system  of  worlds  to  which  our  earth  belongs,  and  of  which 
Sol,  or  in  English  language,  the  Sun,  is  the  centre)  consists,  be- 
sides the  Sun,  of  six  distinct  orbs,  or  planets,  or  worlds,  besides 
the  secondary  bodies,  called  the  satellites  or  moons,  of  which  our 
earth  has  one  that  attends  her  in  her  annual  revolution  round  the 
Sun,  in  like  manner  as  other  sattelites  or  moons,  attend  the 
planets  or  worlds  to  which  they  severally  belong,  as  may  be  seen 
by  the  assistance  of  the  telescope. 

The  Sun  is  the  centre,  round  which  those  six  worlds  or  planets 
revolve  at  different  distances  therefrom,  and  in  circles  concen- 
trate to  each  other.  Each  world  keeps  constantly  in  nearly 
the  same  track  round  the  Sun,  and  continues,  at  the  same  time, 
turning  round  itself,  in  nearly  an  upright  position,  as  a  top  turns 
round  itself  when  it  is  spinning  on  the  ground,  and  leans  a  little 
sideways. 

It  is  this  leaning  of  the  earth  (23^  degrees)  that  occasions  sum- 
mer and  winter,  and  the  different  length  of  days  and  nights.  If  the 
earth  turned  round  itself  in  a  position  perpendicular  to  the  plane  or 
level  of  the  circle  it  moves  in  around  the  Sun,,  as  a  top- turns  rountJ 


60  THE  AOE  OF  REASON.  [PART  I 

when  it  stands  erect  on  the  ground,  the  days  and  nights  would  be 
always  of  the  same  length,  twelve  hours  day  and  twelve  hours  nigbtt 
and  the  seasons  would  be  uniformly  the  same  throughout  the  year. 

Every  time  that  a  planet  (our  earth  for  example)  turns  round 
itself,  it  makes  what  we  call  day  and  night ;  and  every  time  it 
goes  entirely  round  the  Sun,  it  makes  what  we  call  a  year,  conse- 
quently our  world  turns  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  times  round 
itself,  in  going  once  round  the  Sun.* 

The  names  that  the  ancients  gave  to  those  six  worlds,  and 
which  are  still  called  by  the  same  names,  are  Mercury,  Venus, 
this  world  that  we  call  ours,  Mars,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn.  They 
appear  larger  to  the  eye  than  the  stars,  being  many  million  miles 
nearer  to  our  earth  than  any  of  the  stars  are.  The  planet  Venus 
is  that  which  is  called  the  evening  star,  and  sometimes  the  morn- 
ing star,  as  she  happens  to  set  after,  or  rise  before  the  Sun,  which 
in  either  case,  is  never  more  than  three  hours. 

The  Sun,  as  before  said,  being  the  centre,  the  planet,  or  world, 
nearest  the  Sun,  is  Mercury  ;  his  distance  from  the  Sun  is  thirty- 
four  million  miles,  and  he  moves  round  in  a  circle  always  at  that 
distance  from  the  Sun,  as  a  top  may  be  supposed  to  spin  round  in 
the  track  in  which  a  horse  goes  in  a  mill.  The  second  world  is 
Venus,  she  is  fifty-seven  million  miles  distant  from  the  Sun,  and 
consequently  moves  round  in  a  circle  much  greater  than  that  of 
Mercury.  The  third  world  is  that  we  inhabit,  and  which  is  eighty- 
eight  million  miles  distant  from  the  Sun,  and  consequently  moves 
round  in  a  circle  greater  than  that  of  Venus.  The  fourth  world 
is  Mars,  he  is  distant  from  the  Sun  one  hundred  and  thirty-four 
miUion  miles,  and  consequently  moves  round  in  a  circle  greater 
than  that  of  our  earth.  The  fifth  is  Jupiter,  he  is  distant  from 
the  Sun  five  hundred  and  fifty-seven  million  miles,  and  con^e 
quently  moves  round  in  a  circle  greater  than  that  of  Mars.  The 
sixth  world  is  Saturn,  he  is  distant  from  the  Sun  seven  hund'ed 
and  sixty-three  miUion  miles,  and  consequently  moves  round  in  a 
isrcle  that  surrounds  the  circles,  or  orbits,  of  all  the  other  worlds 
or  pla&ets. 

The  space,  therefore,  in  the  air,  or  in  the  immensity  of  space, 
that  cxa  solar  system  takes  up  for  the  several  worlds  to  perform 

*  Those  who  supposed  that  the  Sun  went  round  the  earth  every  24  hours, 
made  the  same  mistake  in  idea  that  a  cook  would  do  in  fact,  that  should 
make  the  fire  go  jouEd  the  meat,  instead  of  the  meat  turning  round  itself  to- 
wards itiis  fine. 


PART    1.]  THE    AGE    OF   REASON.  8l 

their  revolutions  in  round  the  Sun,  is  of  the  extent  in  a  straight  line 
of  the  whole  diameter  of  the  orbit  or  cicle,  in  which  Saturn  moves 
round  the  Sun,  which  being  double  his  distance  from  the  Sun,  is  fif- 
teen hundred  and  twenty-six  million  miles  :  and  its  circular  extent 
IS  nearly  five  thousand  million  ;  and  its  globical  content  is  almost 
three  thousand  five  hundred  million  times  three  thousand  five  hun- 
dred million  square  miles.* 

But  this,  immense  as  it  is,  is  only  one  system  of  worlds.  Be- 
yond this,  at  a  vast  distance  into  space,  far  beyond  all  power  of 
calculation,  are  the  stars  called  the  fixed  stars.  They  are  called 
fixed,  because  they  have  no  revolutionary  motion,  as  the  six 
worlds  or  planets  have  that  I  have  been  describing.  Those  fixed 
stars  continue  always  at  the  same  distance  from  each  other,  and 
always  in  the  same  place,  as  the  Sun  does  in  the  centre  of  our 
system.  The  probability,  therefore,  is,  that  each  of  those  fixed 
stars  is  also  a  Sun,  round  which  another  system  of  worlds  or 
planets,  though  too  remote  for  us  to  discover,  performs  its  revo- 
lutions, as  our  system  of  worlds  does  round  our  central  Sun. 

By  this  easy  progression  of  ideas,  the  immensity  of  space  will 
appear  to  us  to  be  filled  with  systems  of  worlds  ;  and  that  no  part 
of  space  lies  at  waste,  any  more  than  any  part  of  the  globe  or 
earth  and  water  is  left  unoccupied. 

Having  thus  endeavoured  to  convey,  in  a  familiar  and  easy 
manner,  some  idea  of  the  structure  of  the  universe,  I  return  to 
explain  what  I  before  alluded  to,  namely,  the  great  benefits  arising 
to  man  in  consequence  of  the  Creator  having  made  a  plurality  of 
worlds,  such  as  our  system  is,  consisting  of  a  central  Sun  and  six 
worlds  besides  satellites,  in  preference  to  that  of  creating  one 
world  only  of  a  vast  extent. 

♦  If  it  should  be  ausked,  how  can  man  know  these  things  ?  I  have  one  plain 
answer  to  give,  which  is,  that  man  knows  how  to  calculate  an  eclipse,  and 
also  how  to  calculate  to  a  minute  of  time  when  the  planet  Venus,  in  making 
her  revolutions  round  the  Sun,  will  come  in  a  straight  line  between  our  earth 
and  the  Sun,  and  will  appear  to  us  about  the  size  of  a  large  pea  passing  across 
the  face  of  the  Sun.  This  happens  but  twice  in  about  an  hundred  years,  at 
the  distance  of  about  eight  years  from  each  other,  and  has  happened  twice  in 
our  time,  both  of  which  were  foreknown  by  calculation.  It  can  also  be  known 
when  they  will  happen  again  for  a  thousand  years  to  come,  or  to  any  other 
portion  of  time.  As,  tnerefore,  man  could  not  be  able  to  do  these  things  if  he 
did  not  understand  the  solar  system,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  revolutions 
of  the  several  planets  or  worlds  are  performed,  the  fact  of  calculating  an 
eclipse,  or  a  transit  of  Venus,  is  a  proof  in  point  that  the  knowledge  exists; 
ana  as  to  a  few  thousand,  or  even  a  few  million  miles,  more  or  less,  it  inak«« 
Bcarcely  any  sensible  diiTerence  in  such  inunense  distances 


82  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    I. 

It  is  an  idea  I  have  never  lost  sight  of,  that  all  our  knowledge 
of  science  is  derived  from  the  revolutions  (exhibited  to  our  eye 
and  from  thence  to  our  understanding)  which  those  several  planets 
or  worlds,  of  which  our  system  is  composed,  make  in  their  circuit 
lound  the  Sun. 

Had  then  the  quantity  of  matter  which  these  six  worlds  con 
tain  been  blended  into  one  solitary  globe,  the  consequence  to  us 
would  have  been,  that  either  no  revolutionary  motion  would  have 
existed,  or  not  a  sufficiency  of  it  to  give  us  the  idea  and  the 
knowledge  of  science  we  now  have  ;  and  it  is  from  the  sciences 
that  all  the  mechanical  arts  that  contribute  so  much  to  our  earthly 
felicity  and  comfort,  are  derived. 

As,  therefore,  the  Creator  made  nothing  in  vain,  so  also  must 
it  be  believed  that  He  organized  the  structure  of  the  universe  in 
the  most  advantageous  manner  for  the  benefit  of  man  ;  and  as 
we  see,  and  from  experience  feel,  the  benefits  we  derive  from  the 
structure  of  the  universe,  formed  as  it  is,  which  benefits  we  should 
not  have  had  the  opportunity  of  enjoying,  if  the  structure,  so  far 
as  relates  to  our  system,  had  been  a  solitary  globe — we  can  dis- 
cover at  least  one  reason  why  a  plurality  of  worlds  has  been 
made,  and  that  reason  calls  forth  the  devotional  gratitude  of  man, 
as  well  as  his  admiration. 

But  it  is  not  to  us,  the  inhabitants  of  this  globe,  only,  that  the 
benefits  arising  from  a  plurality  of  worlds  are  limited.  The  in- 
habitants of  each  of  the  worlds  of  which  our  system  is  composed, 
enjoy  the  same  opportunities  of  knowledge  as  we  do.  They  be- 
hold the  revolutionary  motions  of  our  earth,  as  we  behold  theirs. 
All  the  planets  revolve  in  sight  of  each  other  ;  and,  therefore,  the 
same  universal  school  of  science  presents  itself  to  all. 

Neither  does  the  knowledge  stop  here.  The  system  of  worlds 
next  to  us  exhibits,  in  its  revolutions,  the  same  principles  and 
school  of  science,  to  the  inhabitants  of  their  system,  as  our  system 
does  to  us,  and  in  like  manner  throughout  the  immensity  of  space. 

Our  ideas,  not  only  of  the  almightiness  of  the  Creator,  but  of 
his  wisdom  and  his  beneficence,  become  enlarged  in  proportion  as 
■we  contemplate  the  extent  and  the  structure  of  the  universe.  The 
solitary  idea  of  a  solitary  world,  rolling  or  at  rest  in  the  immense 
ocean  of  space,  gives  place  to  the  cheerful  idea  of  a  society  oi 
worlds,  so  happily  contrived  as  to  administer,  even  by  their  mo- 
liou,  instruction  to  man.     "We  see  our  own  earth  filled  with  abund* 


FART    I.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  S8 

ance  ;  but  we  forget  to  consider  how  much  of  that  abundance  is 
owing  to  the  scientific  knowledge  the  vast  machinery  of  the  uni- 
verse has  unfolded. 

But,  in  the  midst  of  those  reflections,  what  are  we  to  think  of 
the  Christian  system  of  faith,  that  forms  itself  upon  the  idea  of 
only  one  world,  and  that  of  no  greater  extent,  as  is  before  shown, 
than  twenty- five  thousand  miles?  An  extent  which  a  man,  walk- 
ing at  the  rate  of  three  miles  an  hour,  for  twelve  hours  in  the  day, 
could  he  keep  on  in  a  circular  direction,  would  walk  entirely 
round  in  less  than  two  years.  Alas  !  what  is  this  to  the  mighty 
ocean  of  space,  and  the  almighty  power  of  the  Creator ! 

From  whence  then  could  arise  the  solitary  and  strange  conceit, 
that  the  Almighty,  who  had  millions  of  worlds  equally  dependent 
on  his  protection,  should  quit  the  care  of  all  the  rest,  and  come 
to  die  in  our  world,  because,  they  say,  one  man  and  one  woman 
had  eaten  an  apple  !  And,  on  the  other  hand,  are  we  to  suppose 
that  every  world  in  the  boundless  creation,  had  an  Eve,  an  apple, 
a  serpent  and  a  redeemer  1  In  this  case,  the  person  who  is  irre- 
verently called  the  Son  of  God,  and  sometimes  God  himself, 
would  have  nothing  else  to  do  than  to  travel  from  world  to  world, 
in  an  endless  succession  of  death,  with  scarcely  a  momentary 
interval  of  life. 

It  has  been  by  rejecting  the  evidence,  that  the  word  or  works 
of  God  in  the  creation  affords  to  our  senses,  and  the  action  of  our 
reason  upon  that  evidence,  that  so  many  wild  and  whimsical  sys- 
tems of  faith,  and  of  religion,  have  been  fabricated  and  set  up. 
There  may  be  many  systems  of  religion,  that  so  far  from  being 
morally  bad,  are  in  many  respects  morally  good  :  but  there  can  be 
but  ONE  that  is  true  ;  and  that  one  necessarily  must,  as  it  ever 
will,  be  in  all  things  consistent  with  the  ever  existing  word  of  God 
that  we  behold  in  his  works.  But  such  is  the  strange  construc- 
tion of  the  Christian  system  of  faith,  that  every  evidence  the 
Heavens  afford  to  man,  either  directly  contradicts  it,  or  renders 
it  absurd. 

It  is  possible  to  believe,  and  I  always  feel  pleasure  in  encourag- 
ing myself  to  believe  it,  that  there  have  been  men  in  the  world, 
who  persuade  themselves  that,  what  is  called  a  pious  fraud,  might 
at  least  under  particular  circumstances,  be  productive  of  some 
good.     But  the  fraud  being  once  established,  could  not  afterwards 


54  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PARt    I 

be  explained ;  for  it  is  with  a  pious  fraud  as  with  a  bad  action,  it 
begets  a  calamitous  necessity  of  going  on. 

The  persons  who  first  preached  the  Christian  system  of  faith, 
and  in  some  measure  combined  it  with  the  morality  preached  by 
Jesus  Christ,  might  persuade  themselves  that  it  was  better  than 
the  heathen  mythology  that  then  prevailed.  From  the  first 
preachers  the  fraud  went  on  to  the  second,  and  to  the  third,  till  the 
idea  of  its  being  a  pious  fraud  became  lost  in  the  belief  of  its 
being  true  ;  and  that  belief  became  again  encouraged  by  the 
interests  of  those  who  made  a  livelihood  by  preaching  it. 

But  though  such  a  belief  might,  by  such  means,  be  rendered 
almost  general  among  the  laity,  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  account 
for  the  continual  persecution  carried  on  by  the  church,  for  several 
hundred  years,  against  the  sciences,  and  against  the  professors  ot 
sciences,  if  the  church  had  not  some  record  or  tradition,  that  it 
was  originally  no  other  than  a  pious  fraud,  or  did  not  foresee,  that 
it  could  not  be  maintained  against  the  evidence  that  the  structure 
of  the  universe  afforded. 

Having  thus  shown  the  irreconcileable  inconsistencies  between 
the  real  word  of  God  existing  in  the  universe  and  that  which  is 
called  the  wcrrd  of  God,  as  shown  to  us  in  a  printed  book  that  any 
man  might  make,  I  proceed  to  speak  of  the  three  principal  means 
that  have  been  employed  in  all  ages,  and  perhaps  in  all  countries, 
to  impose  upon  mankind. 

Those  three  means  are  Mystery,  Miracle,  and  Prophesy.  The 
two  first  are  incompatible  with  true  religion,  and  the  third  ought 
always  to  be  suspected. 

With  respect  to  mystery,  every  thing  we  behold  is,  in  one  sense, 
a  mystery  to  us.  Our  own  existence  is  a  mystery ;  the  whole 
vegetable  world  is  a  mystery.  We  cannot  account  how  it  is  that 
an  acorn,  when  put  into  the  ground,  is  made  to  develope  itself, 
and  become  an  oak.  We  know  not  how  it  is  that  the  seed  we  sow 
unfolds  and  multiplies  itself,  and  returns  to  us  such  an  abundant 
interest  for  so  small  a  capital. 

The  fact,  however,  as  distinct  from  the  operating  cause,  is  not 
a  mystery,  because  we  see  it ;  and  we  know  also  the  means  we 
are  to  use,  which  is  no  other  than  putting  seed  in  the  ground. — 
We  know,  therefore,  as  much  as  is  necessary  for  us  to  know  ;  and 
that  part  of  the  operation  that  we  do  not  know,  and  which  if  we 
did.  we  could  not  perform,  the  Creator  takes  upon  himself  an<i 


PART    I.J  THE   AGE   OP   REASON.  9$ 

performs  it  for  us.  We  are,  therefore,  better  off  than  if  we  had 
been  let  into  the  secret,  and  left  to  do  it  for  ourselves. 

But  though  every  created  thing  is,  in  this  sense,  a  mystery,  the 
word  mystery  cannot  be  applied  to  moral  truth,  any  more  than 
obscurity  can  be  applied  to  light.  The  God  in  whom  we  believe 
is  a  God  of  moral  truth,  and  not  a  God  of  mystery  or  obscurity. 
Mystery  is  the  antagonist  of  truth.  It  is  a  fog  of  human  invention, 
that  obscures  truth,  and  represents  it  in  distortion.  Truth  never 
envelopes  itself  in  mystery  ;  and  the  mystery  in  which  it  is  at  any 
time  enveloped,  is  the  work  of  its  antagonist,  and  never  of  itself. 

Religion,  therefore,  being  the  belief  of  a  God,  and  the  practice 
of  moral  truth,  cannot  have  connection  with  mystery.  The  beliet 
of  a  God,  so  far  from  having  any  thing  of  mystery  in  it,  is  of  all 
beliefs  the  most  easy,  because  it  arises  to  us,  as  is  before  obser- 
ved, out  of  necessity.  And  the  practice  of  moral  truth,  or,  in 
other  words,  &  practical  imitation  of  the  moral  goodness  of  God, 
is  no  other  than  our  acting  towards  each  other  as  he  acts  benignly 
towards  all.  We  cannot  sei've  God  in  the  manner  we  serve  those 
who  cannot  do  without  such  service ;  and,  therefore,  the  only  idea 
we  can  have  of  serving  God,  is  that  of  contributing  to  the  happi- 
ness of  the  living  creation  that  God  has  made.  This  cannot  be 
done  by  retiring  ourselves  from  the  society  of  the  world,  and 
spending  a  recluse  life  in  selfish  devotion. 

The  very  nature  and  design  of  religion,  if  I  may  so  express  it, 
prove,  even  to  demonstration,  that  it  must  be  free  from  every  thing 
of  mystery,  and  unincumbered  with  every  thing  that  is  mysterious. 
Religion,  considered,  as  a  duty,  is  incumbent  upon  every  living 
soul  alike,  and,  therefore,  must  be  on  a  level  to  the  understanding 
and  comprehension  of  all.  Man  does  not  learn  religion  as  ho 
learns  the  secrets  and  mysteries  of  a  trade.  He  learns  the  theory 
of  religion  by  reflection.  It  arises  out  of  the  action  of  his  own 
mind  upon  the  things  which  he  sees,  or  upon  what  he  may  happen 
to  hear  or  to  read,  and  the  practice  joins  itself  thereto. 

When  men,  whether  from  policy  or  pious  fraud,  set  up  systems 
of  religion  incompatible  with  the  word  or  works  of  God  in  the 
creation,  and  not  only  above,  but  repugnant  to  human  comprehen- 
sion, they  were  under  the  necessity  of  inventing  or  adopting  a 
word  that  should  serve  as  a  bar  to  all  questions,  inquiries  and 
speculations.     The  word  mystenj  answered  this  purpose  ;  and 


56  THE  AGE  OF  REASON  \PART  I* 

thus  it  has  happened    that  religion,  which  is  in  itself  without 
mystery,  has  been  corrupted  into  a  fog  of  mysteries. 

As  mystery  answered  all  general  purposes,  miracle  followed  as 
an  occasional  auxiliary.  The  former  served  to  bewilder  the 
mind  ;  the  latter  to  puzzle  the  senses.  The  one  was  the  Imgo, 
the  other  the  legerdemain. 

But  before  going  further  into  this  subject,  it  will  be  proper  to 
inquire  what  is  to  be  understood  by  a  miracle. 

In  the  same  sense  that  every  thing  may  be  said  to  be  a  mystery, 
so  also  may  it  be  said  that  every  thing  is  a  miracle,  and  that  no 
one  thing  is  a  greater  miracle  than  another.  The  elephant, 
though  larger,  is  not  a  greater  miracle  than  a  mite  ;  nor  a 
mountain  a  greater  miracle  than  an  atom.  To  an  almighty 
power,  it  is  no  more  difficult  to  make  the  one  than  the  other ; 
and  no  more  difficult  to  make  a  million  of  worlds  than  to  make 
one.  Every  thing,  therefore,  is  a  miracle,  in  one  sense,  whilst 
in  the  other  sense,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  miracle.  It  is 
a  miracle  when  compared  to  our  power,  and  to  our  comprehen- 
sion ;  it  is  not  a  miracle  compared  to  the  power  that  performs  it ; 
but  as  nothing  in  this  description  conveys  the  idea  that  is  affixed 
to  the  word  miracle,  it  is  necessary  to  carry  the  inquiry  further. 

Mankind  have  conceived  to  themselves  certain  laws,  by  which 
what  they  call  nature  is  supposed  to  act ;  and  that  a  miracle  is 
something  contrary  to  the  operation  and  effect  of  those  laws,  but 
unless  we  know  the  whole  extent  of  those  laws,  and  of  what  arc 
commonly  called  the  powers  of  nature,  we  are  not  able  to  judge 
whether  any  thing  that  may  appear  to  us  wonderful  or  miraculous,  be 
within,  or  be  beyond,  or  be  contrary  to,  her  natural  power  of  acting. 
The  ascension  of  a  man  several  miles  high  into  the  air,  would 
have  every  thing  in  it  that  constitutes  the  idea  of  a  miracle,  if  it 
were  not  known  that  a  species  of  air  can  be  generated  several 
times  lighter  than  the  common  atmospheric  air,  and  yet  possess 
elasticity  enough  to  prevent  the  balloon,  in  which  that  light  air  is 
enclosed,  from  being  compressed  into  as  many  times  less  bulk,  by 
the  common  air  that  surrounds  it.  In  like  manner,  extracting 
flames  or  sparks  of  fire  from  the  human  body,  as  visible  as  from 
a  steel  struck  with  a  flint,  and  causing  iron  or  steel  to  move  with- 
out any  visible  agent,  would  also  give  the  idea  of  a  miracle,  if 
we  were  not  acquainted  with  electricity  and  magnetism;  go  also 
would  many  other  experiments  in  natural  philosophy,  to  those 


PAKT  l.J  THE    ACE    OF    REASON.  67 

who  are  not  acquainted  with  the  subject.  The  restoring  persons 
to  life,  who  are  to  appearance  dead,  as  is  practised  upon  drowned 
persons,  would  also  be  a  miracle,  if  it  were  not  known  that  ani- 
mation is  capable  of  being  suspended  without  being  extinct. 

Besides  these,  there  are  performances  by  slight  of  hand,  and  by 
persons  acting  in  concert,  that  have  a  miraculous  appearance, 
which,  when  known,  are  thought  nothing  of.  And,  besides  these, 
there  are  mechanical  and  optical  deceptions.  There  is  now  an 
exhibition  in  Paris  of  ghosts  or  spectres,  which,  though  it  is  not 
imposed  upon  the  spectators  as  a  fact,  has  an  astonishing  appear- 
ance. As,  therefore,  we  know  not  the  extent  to  which  either 
nature  or  art  can  go,  there  is  no  criterion  to  determine  what  a 
miracle  is  ;  and  mankind,  in  giving  credit  to  appearances,  under 
the  idea  of  their  being  miracles,  are  subject  to  be  continually  im- 
posed upon. 

Since  then  appearances  are  so  capable  of  deceiving,  and  things 
not  real  have  a  strong  resemblance  to  things  that  are,  nothing  can 
be  more  inconsistent  than  to  suppose  that  the  Almighty  would 
make  use  of  means,  such  as  are  called  miracles,  that  would  sub- 
ject the  person  who  performed  thpm  to  the  suspicion  of  being  an 
impostor,  and  the  person  who  related  them  to  be  suspected  of 
lying,  and  the  doctrine  intended  to  be  supported  thereby  to  be 
suspected  as  a  fabulous  invention. 

Of  all  the  modes  of  evidence  that  ever  were  intended  to  obtain 
belief  to  any  system  or  opinion  to  which  the  name  of  religion  has 
been  given,  that  of  miracle,  however  successful  the  imposition 
may  have  been,  is  the  most  inconsistent.  For,  in  the  first  place, 
whenever  recourse  is  had  to  show,  for  the  purpose  of  procurmg 
that  belief,  (for  a  miracle,  under  any  idea  of  the  word,  is  a  show,) 
it  implies  a  lameness  or  weakness  in  the  doctrine  that  is  preached. 
And,  in  the  second  place,  it  is  degrading  the  Almighty  into  the 
character  of  a  show-man,  playing  tricks  to  amuse  and  make  the 
people  stare  and  wonder.  It  is  also  the  most  equivocal  sort  of 
evidence  that  can  be  set  up  ;  for  the  belief  is  not  to  depend  upon 
the  thing  called  a  miracle,  but  upon  the  credit  of  the  reporter, 
who  says  that  he  saw  it ;  and,  therefore,  the  thing,  were  it  true, 
would  have  no  better  chance  of  being  believed  than  if  it  were  a  lie. 

Suppose  I  were  to  say,  that  when  I  sat  down  to  write  this  book, 
a  hand  presented  itself  in  the  air,  took  up  the  pen  and  wrote  every 
word  that  is  herein  written  ;  would  any  body  believe  me  ?  Cer- 
8 


58  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART  I. 

tainly  they  would  not.  Would  they  believe  me  a  whit  the  more 
if  the  thing  had  been  a  fact ;  certainly  they  would  not.  Since 
then  a  real  miracle,  were  it  to  happen,  would  be  subject  to  the 
same  fate  as  the  falsehood,  the  inconsistency  becomes  the  greater, 
of  supposing  the  Almighty  would  make  use  of  means  that  would 
not  answer  the  purpose  for  which  they  were  intended,  even  if  they 
were  real. 

If  we  are  to  suppose  a  miracle  to  be  something  so  entirely  out 
of  the  course  of  what  is  called  nature,  that  she  must  go  out  of 
that  course  to  accomplish  it,  and  we  see  an  account  given  of 
such  miracle  by  the  person  who  said  he  saw  it,  it  raises  a  ques- 
tion in  the  mind  very  easily  decided,  which  is,  is  it  more  probable 
that  nature  should  go  out  of  her  course,  or  that  a  man  should 
tell  a  lie  ?  We  have  never  seen,  in  our  time,  nature  go  out  of 
her  course ;  but  we  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  millions 
of  lies  have  been  told  in  the  same  time  ;  it  is,  therefore,  at  least 
millions  to  one,  that  the  reporter  of  a  miracle  tells  a  lie. 

The  story  of  the  whale  swallowing  Jonah,  though  a  whale  is 
large  enough  to  do  it,  borders  greatly  on  the  marvellous ;  but  it 
would  have  approached  nearer  to  the  idea  of  miracle,  if  Jonah 
had  swallowed  the  whale.  In  this,  which  may  serve  for  all  cases 
of  miracles,  the  matter  would  decide  itself,  as  before  stated, 
namely,  is  it  more  probable  that  a  man  should  have  swallowed  a 
whale  or  told  a  lie. 

But  supposing  that  Jonah  had  really  swallowed  the  whale,  and 
gone  with  it  in  his  belly  to  Ninevah,  and  to  convince  the  people 
that  it  was  true,  have  cast  it  up  in  their  sight,  of  the  full  length  and 
size  of  a  whale,  would  they  not  have  believed  him  to  have  been  the 
devil,  instead  of  a  prophet  1  or,  if  the  whale  had  carried  Jonah  to 
Ninevah,  and  cast  him  up  in  the  same  public  manner,  would  they 
not  have  believed  the  whale  to  have  been  the  devil,  and  Jonah  one 
of  his  imps. 

The  most  extraordinary  of  all  the  things  called  miracles,  related 
in  the  New  Testament,  is  that  of  the  devil  flying  away  with  Jesus 
Christ,  and  carrying  him  to  the  top  of  a  high  mountain  ;  and  to  the 
top  of  the  highest  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  and  showing  him  and 
promising  to  him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world.  How  happened  it 
that  he  did  not  discover  America  ;  or  is  it  only  with  kingdoms  that 
nis  sooty  highness  has  any  interest  ? 


PART    I.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASOIt.  69 

I  have  too  much  respect  for  the  moral  character  of  Christ,  tc 
beheve  that  he  told  this  whale  of  a  miracle  himself:  neither  is  it 
easy  to  account  for  what  purpose  it  could  have  been  fabricated, 
unless  it  were  to  impose  upon  the  connoisseurs  of  miracles,  as  is 
sometimes  practised  upon  the  connoisseurs  of  Queen  Anne's  far 
things,  and  collectors  of  relics  and  antiquities  ;  or  to  render  the 
belief  of  miracles,  ridiculous,  by  outdoing  miracles,  as  Don  Quix- 
otte  outdid  chivalry  ;  or  to  embarrass  the  belief  of  miracles,  by 
making  it  doubtful  by  what  power,  whether  of  God  or  the  Devil, 
any  thing  called  a  miracle  was  performed.  It  requires,  however, 
a  great  deal  of  faith  in  the  devil  to  believe  this  miracle. 

In  every  point  of  view  in  which  those  things  called  miracles  can 
be  placed  and  considered,  the  reality  of  them  is  improbable,  and 
their  existence  unnecessary.  They  would  not,  as  before  observed, 
answer  any  useful  purpose,  even  if  they  were  true  ;  for  it  is  more 
difficult  to  obtain  belief  to  a  miracle,  than  to  a  principle  evidently 
moral,  without  any  miracle.  Moral  principle  speaks  universally  for 
itself.  Miracle  could  be  but  a  thing  of  the  moment,  and  seen  but 
by  a  few  ;  after  this  it  requires  a  transfer  of  faith  from  G  od  to  man 
to  believe  a  miracle  upon  man's  report.  Instead,  therefore,  of  ad- 
mitting the  recitals  of  miracles  as  evidence  of  any  system  of  reli- 
gion being  true,  they  ought  to  be  considered  as  symptoms  of  its 
being  fabulous.  It  is  necessary  to  the  full  and  upright  character 
of  truth  that  it  rejects  the  crutch  ;  and  it  is  consistent  with  the 
character  of  fable,  to  seek  the  aid  that  truth  rejects.  Thus  much 
for  mystery  and  miracle. 

As  mystery  and  miracle  took  charge  of  the  past  and  the  present, 
prophesy  took  charge  of  the  future,  and  rounded  the  tenses  of 
faith.  It  was  not  sufficient  to  know  what  had  been  done,  but  what 
would  be  done.  The  supposed  prophet  was  the  supposed  historian 
of  times  to  come ;  and  if  he  happened,  in  shooting  with  a  long 
bow  of  a  thousand  years,  to  strike  within  a  thousand  miles  of  a 
mark,  the  ingenuity  of  posterity  could  make  it  point-blank  ;  and  if 
he  happened  to  be  directly  wrong,  it  was  only  to  suppose,  as  in  the 
case  of  Jonah  and  Ninevah,  that  God  had  repented  himself  and 
changed  his  mind.  What  a  fool  do  fabulous  systems  make  of 
man  ! 

It  has  been  shown,  in  a  former  part  of  this  work,  that  the 
original  meaning  of  the  words  prophet  dind prophesying  has  been 
changed,  and  that  a  prophet,  in  the  sense  of  the  word  as  now  used, 


60  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART    I. 

is  a  creature  of  modem  invention ;  and  it  is  owing  to  this  change  in 
the  meaning  of  the  words,  that  the  flights  and  metaphors  of  the  Jew- 
ish poets,  and  pnrases  and  expressions  now  rendered  obscure,  by 
our  not  being  acquainted  with  the  local  circumstances  to  which 
they  appUed  at  the  time  they  were  used,  have  been  erected  into 
prophecies,  and  made  to  bend  to  explanations,  at  the  will  and 
whimsical  conceits  of  sectaries,  expounders  and  commentators. 
Every  thing  unintelligible  was  prophetical,  and  every  thing  insig- 
nificant was  typical.  A  blunder  would  have  served  as  a  prophe- 
cy ;  and  a  dish-clout  for  a  type. 

If  by  a  prophet  we  are  to  suppose  a  man,  to  whom  the  Almighty 
communicated  some  event  that  would  take  place  in  future,  either 
there  Avere  such  men,  or  there  were  not.  If  there  were,  it  is  con- 
sistent to  believe  that  the  event  so  communicated,  would  be  told  in 
terms  that  could  be  understood  ;  and  not  related  in  such  a  loose 
and  obscure  manner  as  to  be  out  of  the  comprehensions  of  those 
that  heard  it,  and  so  equivocal  as  to  fit  almost  any  circumstance 
that  might  happen  afterwards.  It  is  conceiving  very  irreverently 
of  the  Almighty,  to  suppose  he  would  deal  in  this  jesting  manner 
with  mankind  ;  yet  all  the  things  called  prophesies  in  the  book 
called  the  Bible,  come  under  this  description. 

But  it  is  with  prophecy  as  it  is  with  miracle  ;  it  could  not  ans- 
wer the  purpose  even  if  it  were  real.  Those  to  whom  a  prophecy 
should  be  told,  could  not  tell  whether  the  man  prophesied  or  lied, 
or  whether  it  had  been  revealed  to  him,  or  whether  he  conceited 
it ;  and  if  the  thing  that  he  prophesied,  or  intended  to  prophecy, 
should  happen,  or  something  like  it,  among  the  multitude  of  things 
that  are  daily  happening,  nobody  could  again  know  whether  he 
foreknew  it,  or  guessed  at  it,  or  whether  it  was  accidental.  A  pro- 
phet, therefore,  is  a  character  useless  and  unnecessary  ;  and  the 
safe  side  of  the  case  is,  to  guard  against  being  imposed  upon  by 
not  givmg  credit  to  such  relations. 

Upon  the  whole,  mystery,  miracle,  and  prophecy,  arc  appen- 
dages that  belong  to  fabulous  and  not  to  true  religion.  Itiey  are 
the  means  by  which  so  many  Lo  heres  !  and  Lo  theres  !  have  been 
spread  about  the  world,  and  religion  been  made  into  a  trade.  The 
success  of  one  imposter  gave  encouragement  to  another,  and  the 
quieting  salvo  of  doing  some  good  by  keeping  up  a  pious  fraud 
protected  them  from  remorse. 


PARTI.  J  THE    AGE    OF    RE.VSON.  61 

Having  now  extended  the  subject  to  a  greater  length  than  I  first 
intended,  I  shall  bring  it  to  a  close  by  abstracting  a  summary 
from  the  whole. 

First — That  the  idea  or  belief  of  a  word  of  God  existing  in 
print,  or  in  writing,  or  in  speech,  is  inconsistent  in  itself  for 
reasons  already  assigned.  These  reasons,  among  many  others, 
are  the  want  of  an  universal  language  ;  the  mutability  of  language ; 
the  errors  to  which  translations  are  subject ;  the  possibility  of 
totally  suppressing  such  a  word  ;  the  probability  of  altering  it,  or 
of  fabricating  the  whole,  and  imposing  it  upon  the  world. 

Secondly — That  the  Creation  we  behold  is  the  real  and  ever 
existing  word  of  God,  in  which  we  cannot  be  deceived.  It  pro- 
claims his  power,  it  demonstrates  his  wisdom,  it  manifests  his 
goodness  and  beneficence. 

Thirdly — That  the  moral  duty  of  man  consists  in  imitating  the 
moral  goodness  and  beneficence  of  God  manifested  in  the  crea- 
tion towards  all  his  creatures.  That  seeing  as  we  daily  do  the 
goodness  of  God  to  all  men,  it  is  an  example  calling  upon  all  men 
to  practise  the  same  towards  each  other  ;  and,  consequently,  that 
every  thing  of  persecution  and  revenge  between  man  and  man,  and 
every  thing  of  cruelty  to  animals,  is  a  violation  of  moral  duty. 

I  trouble  not  myself  about  the  manner  of  future  existence.  I 
content  myself  with  believing,  even  to  positive  conviction,  that 
the  power  that  gave  me  existence  is  able  to  continue  it,  in  any 
form  and  manner  he  pleases,  either  with  or  without  this  bodv ;  and 
it  appears  more  probable  to  me  that  I  shall  continue  to  exist  here- 
after, than  that  I  should  have  had  existence,  as  I  now  have,  before 
that  existence  began. 

It  is  certain  that,  in  one  point,  all  nations  of  the  earth  and  all 
religions  agree  ;  all  believe  in  a  God  ;  the  things  in  which  they 
disagree,  are  the  redundancies  annexed  to  that  belief;  and,  there- 
fore, if  ever  an  universal  religion  should  prevail,  it  will  not  be 
believing  any  thing  new,  but  in  getting  rid  of  redundancies,  and 
believing  as  man  believed  at  first.  Adam,  if  ever  there  was  such 
a  man,  was  created  a  Deist ;  but  in  the  mean  time,  let  every  man 
follow,  as  he  has  a  right  to  do,  the  religion  and  the  worship  he 
prefers. 

END    OF    THE    FIRST    PART. 


THE 

AGE  OF  REASON. 

PART  SECOND. 


PREFACE. 


I  have  mentioned  in  the  former  part  of  The  Jlge  oj  Reason,  that 
it  had  long  been  my  intention  to  publish  my  thoughts  upon  reli- 
gion ;  but  that  I  had  originally  reserved  it  to  a  later  period  in  life, 
intending  it  to  be  the  last  work  I  should  undertake.  The  circum- 
stances, however,  which  existed  in  France  in  the  latter  end  of  the 
year  1793,  determined  me  to  delay  it  no  longer.  The  just  and 
humane  principles  of  the  revolution  which  philosophy  had  first 
diffused,  had  been  departed  from.  The  idea,  always  dangerous 
to  society  as  it  is  derogatory  to  the  Almighty,  that  priests  could 
forgive  sins,  though  it  seemed  to  exist  no  longer,  had  blunted  the 
feelings  of  humanity,  and  callously  prepared  men  for  the  commis- 
sion of  all  manner  of  crimes.  The  intolerant  spirit  of  church 
persecutions  had  transferred  itself  into  politics ;  the  tribunal, 
styled  revolutionary,  supplied  the  place  of  an  inquisition;  and  the 
guillotine  and  the  stake  outdid  the  fire  and  faggot  of  the  church. 
I  saw  many  of  my  most  intimate  friends  destroyed  ;  others  daily 
carried  to  prison  ;  and  I  had  reason  to  believe,  and  had  also 
intimations  given  me,  that  the  same  danger  was  approaching  my- 
self. 

Under  these  disadvantages,  I  began  the  former  part  of  the  Age 
of  Reason  ;  I  had,  besides,  neither  Bible  nor  Testament  to  refer 
to,  though  I  was  writing  against  both ;  nor  could  I  procure  any  ; 
notwithstanding  which,  I  have  produced  a  work  that  no  Bible  be- 
liever, though  writing  at  his  ease,  and  with  a  library  of  church- 
books  about  him,  can  refute.  Towards  the  latter  end  of  Decem- 
ber of  that  year,  a  motion  was  made  and  carried,  to  exclude 
foreigners  from  the  convention.  There  were  but  two  in  it,. 
Anacharsis  Cloots  and  myself;  and  I  saw,  I  was  particularly 
pointed  at  by  Bourdon  dc  I'Oise,  in  his  speech  on  that  motion. 


66  PKEFACE 

Conceiving,  after  this,  that  I  had  but  a  few  days  of  liberty,  I  sat 
down  and  brought  the  work  to  a  close  as  speedily  as  possible  ; 
and  I  had  not  finished  it  more  than  six  hours,  in  the  state  it  has 
since  appeared,  before  a  guard  came  there  about  three  in  the 
morning,  with  an  order  signed  by  the  two  committees  of  public 
safety  and  surety-general,  for  putting  me  in  arrestation  as  a 
foreigner,  and  conveyed  me  to  the  prison  of  the  Luxembourg.  1 
contrived,  in  my  way  there,  to  call  on  Joel  Barlow,  and  I  put  the 
manuscript  of  the  work  into  his  hands,  as  more  safe  than  in  my 
possession  in  prison  ;  and  not  knowing  what  might  be  the  fate  in 
France  either  of  the  writer  or  the  work,  I  addressed  it  to  the 
protection  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  with  justice  that  I  say,  that  the  guard  who  executed  this 
order,  and  the  interpreter  of  the  Committee  of  general  surety, 
who  accompanied  them  to  examine  my  papers,  treated  me  not 
only  with  civility,  but  with  respect.  The  keeper  of  the  Luxem- 
bourg, Bennoit,a  man  of  a  good  heart,  showed  to  me  every  friend- 
ship in  his  power,  as  did  also  all  his  family,  while  he  continued  in 
that  station.  He  was  removed  from  it,  put  into  arrestation,  and 
carried  before  the  tribunal  upon  a  malignant  accusation,  but  ac- 
quitted. 

After  I  had  been  in  the  Luxembourg  about  three  weeks,  the 
Americans,  then  in  Paris,  went  in  a  body  to  the  convention,  to 
reclaim  me  as  their  countryman  and  friend  ;  but  were  answered 
by  the  President,  Vader,  who  was  also  President  of  the  Committee 
of  surety-general,  and  had  signed  the  order  for  my  arrestation, 
that  I  was  born  in  England.  I  heard  no  more,  after  this,  from  any 
person  out  of  the  walls  of  the  prison,  till  the  ftill  of  Robespierre, 
on  the  9th  of  Thermidor— July  27,  1794. 

About  two  months  before  this  event,  I  was  seized  with  a  fever, 
that  in  its  progress  had  every  symptom  of  becoming  mortal,  and 
from  the  effects  of  which  I  am  not  recovered.  It  was  then  that  I 
remembered  with  renewed  satisfaction,  and  congratulated  myself 
most  sincerely  on  having  written  the  former  part  of"  The  Age  of 
Reason.''''  I  had  then  but  little  expectation  of  surviving,  and  those 
about  me  had  less.  I  know,  therefore,  by  experience,  the  consci- 
entious trial  of  my  own  principles. 

I  was  then  with  three  chamber  comrades,  Joseph  Vanheule,  of 
Bruges,  Charles  Bastini,  and  Michael  Rubyns,  of  Louvain.  The 
unceasing  and  anxious  attention  of  these  three  friends  to  me,  bv 


PREFACE.  67 

night  and  by  day,  I  remember  with  gratitude,  and  mention  vnih 
pleasure.  It  happened  that  a  physician  (Dr.  Graham)  and  a 
surgeon,  (Mr.  Bond,)  part  of  the  suite  of  General  O'Hara,  were 
then  in  the  Luxembourg.  I  ask  not  myself,  whether  it  be  con- 
venient to  them,  as  men  under  the  English  government,  that  I 
express  to  them  my  thanks  ;  but  I  should  reproach  myself  if  I 
did  not ;  and  also  to  the  physician  of  the  Luxembourg,  Dr. 
Markoski. 

I  have  some  reason  to  believe,  because  I  cannot  discover  any 
other  cause,  that  this  illness  preserved  me  in  existence.  Among 
the  papers  of  Robespierre  that  were  examined  and  reported  upon 
to  the  Convention,  by  a  Committee  of  Deputies,  is  a  note  in  the 
hand-writing  of  llobespierre,  in  the  following  words  : — 

"Demander  que  Thomas  Paine  soit        To  demand  that  a  decree  of  accusa- 
decrete  d'accusation,  pour  I'interet  de     tion  be  passed  against  Thomas  Paine, 
I'Amerique  autant  que  de  la  France."     for  the  interest  of  America,  as  well  as 
of  France. 

From  what  cause  it  was  that  the  intention  was  not  put  in  exe- 
cution, I  know  not,  and  cannot  inform  myself;  and  therefore  I 
ascribe  it  to  impossibility,  on  account  of  that  illness. 

The  Convention,  to  repair  as  much  as  lay  in  their  power 
the  injustice  I  had  sustained,  invited  me  publicly  and  unani- 
mously to  return  into  the  Convention,  and  which  I  accepted, 
to  show  I  could  bear  an  injury  without  permitting  it  to  injure 
my  principles  or  my  disposition.  It  is  not  because  right  prin- 
ciples have  been  violated,  that  they  are  to  be  abandoned. 

I  have  seen,  since  I  have  been  at  liberty,  several  publica- 
tions written,  some  in  America,  and  some  in  England,  as 
answers  to  the  former  part  of  "  The  Age  of  Reason."  If 
the  authors  of  these  can  amuse  themselves  by  so  doing,  I 
shall  not  interrupt  them.  They  may  write  against  the  work, 
and  against  me,  as  much  as  they  please  ;  they  do  me  more 
service  than  they  intend,  and  I  can  have  no  objection  that 
they  write  on.  They  will  find,  however,  by  this  second  part, 
without  its  being  written  as  an  answer  to  them,  that  they 
must  return  to  their  work,  and  spin  their  cobweb  over  again. 
The  first  is  brushed  away  by  accident. 

They  will  now  find  that  I  have  furnished  myself  with  a 
Bible  and  a  Testament ;  and  I  can  say  also  that  I  have  found 
ihem  to    be  much    worse    books  than  I  had  conceived.     If  I 


68  PREFACE. 

have  erred  in  any  thing,  in  the  former  part  of  the  Age  of 
Reason,  it  has  been  by  speaking  better  of  some  parts  of  those 
books  than  they  have  deserved. 

I  observe  that  all  my  opponents  resort,  more  or  less,  to 
what  they  call  Scripture  Evidence  and  Bible  authority,  to  help 
them  out.  They  are  so  little  masters  pf  the  subject,  as  to 
confound  a  dispute  about  authenticity  with  a  dispute  about 
doctrines ;  I  will,  however,  put  them  right,  that  if  they  should 
be  disposed  to  write  any  more,  they  may  know  how  to  begin. 

THOMAS  PAINE 
October,  1795 


THE 

AGE  OF  REASON. 


PART  THE  SECOND. 


It  has  often  been  said,  that  any  thing  may  be  proved  from  the 
Bible,  but  before  any  thing  can  be  admitted  as  proved  by  the  Bible, 
the  Bible  itself  must  be  proved  to  be  true ;  for  if  the  Bible  be  not 
true,  or  the  truth  of  it  be  doubtful,  it  ceases  to  have  authority,  and 
cannot  be  admitted  as  proof  of  any  thing. 

It  has  been  the  practice  of  all  Christian  commentators  on  the 
Bible,  and  of  all  Christian  priests  and  preachers,  to  impose  the 
Bible  on  the  world  as  a  mass  of  truth,  and  as  the  word  of  God  ; 
they  have  disputed  and  wrangled,  and  have  anathematized  each 
other  about  the  supposable  meaning  of  particular  parts  and  passa- 
ges therein  ;  one  has  said  and  insisted  that  such  a  passage  meant 
such  a  thing  ;  another  that  it  meant  directly  the  contrary  ;  and  a 
third,  that  it  means  neither  one  nor  the  other,  but  something  differ- 
ent from  both ;  and  this  they  call  understanding  the  Bible. 

It  has  happened,  that  all  the  answers  which  I  have  seen  to  the 
former  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason  have  been  written  by  priests  ; 
and  these  pious  men,  like  their  predecessors,  contend  and  wrangle, 
and  pretend  to  understand  the  Bible  ;  each  understands  it  differ- 
ently, but  each  understands  it  best ;  and  they  have  agreed  in  no- 
thing, but  in  telling  their  readers  that  Thomas  Paine  understands 
it  not. 

Now  instead  of  wasting  their  time,  and  heating  themselves  in 
fractious  disputations  about  doctrinal  points  drawn  from  the  Bible 
these  men  ought  to  know,  and  if  they  do  not,  it  is  civility  to  inforn" 


70  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  LPART    II. 

them,  that  the  first  thing  to  be  understood  is,  whether  there  is  suf- 
ficient authority  for  believing  the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of  God,  or 
whether  there  is  not  1 

There  are  matters  in  that  book,  said  to  be  done  by  the  express 
command  of  God,  that  are  as  shocking  to  humanity,  and  to  every 
idea  we  have  of  moral  justice,  as  any  thing  done  by  Robespierre, 
by  Carrier,  by  Joseph  le  Bon,  in  France,  by  the  Enghsh  govern 
ment  in  the  East  Indies,  or  by  any  other  assassin  in  modern  times. 
When  we  read  in  the  books  ascribed  to  Moses,  Joshua,  &c.  that 
theyr  (the  Israelites)  came  by  stealth  upon  whole  nations  of  people, 
who,  as  the  history  itself  shows,  had  given  them  no  offence  ;  that 
they  put  all  those  7iations  to  the  sicord  ;  that  they  spared  neither 
age  nor  infancy  ;  that  they  utterly  destroyed  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren ;  that  they  left  not  a  sotd  to  breathe ;  expressions  that  cire 
repeated  over  and  over  again  in  those  books,  and  that  too  with 
exulting  ferocity ;  are  we  sure  these  things  are  facts  1  Are  we 
sure  that  the  Creator  of  man  commissioned  these  things  to  be 
done  ;  are  we  sure  that  the  books  that  tell  us  so  were  written  by 
his  authority  ? 

It  is  not  the  antiquity  of  a  tale  that  is  any  evidence  of  its  truth  ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  a  symptom  of  its  being  fabulous  ;  for  the  more 
ancient  any  history  pretends  to  be,  the  more  it  has  the  resemblance 
of  a  fable.  The  origin  of  every  nation  is  buried  in  fabulous  tra- 
dition, and  that  of  the  Jews  is  as  much  to  be  suspected  as  any 
other.  To  charge  the  commission  of  acts  upon  the  Almighty, 
which  in  their  own  nature,  and  by  every  rule  of  moral  justice,  are 
crimes,  as  all  assassination  is,  and  more  especially  the  assassina- 
tion of  infants,  is  matter  of  serious  concern.  The  Bible  tells  us, 
that  those  assassinations  were  done  by  the  express  command  of 
God.  To  believe,  therefore,  the  Bible  to  be  true,  we  must  tin- 
believe  all  our  belief  in  the  moral  justice  of  God ;  for  wherein 
could  crying  or  smiling  infants  offend  ?  And  to  read  the  Bible 
without  horror,  we  must  undo  every  thing  that  is  tender,  sympa 
thizing,  and  benevolent  in  the  heart  of  man.  Speaking  for  my- 
self, if  I  had  no  other  evidence  that  the  Bible  was  fabulous,  than 
the  sacrifice  I  must  make  to  believe  it  to  be  true,  that  alone  would 
be  sufficient  to  determine  my  choice. 

But  in  addition  to  all  the  moral  evidence  against  the  Bible,  I 
will  in  the  progress  of  this  work,  produce  such  other  evidence,  as 


TART    II.]  THE    AOE    OF    llEASON  71 

eyen  a  priest  cannot  deny  ;  and  show,  from  tnat  evidence,  that 
the  Bible  is  not  entitled  to  credit,  as  being  the  word  of  God. 

But,  before  I  proceed  to  this  examination,  I  will  show  wherein 
the  Bible  differs  from  all  other  ancient  writings  with  respect  to  the 
nature  of  the  evidence  necessary  to  establish  its  authenticity  ;  and 
this  is  the  more  proper  to  be  done,  because  the  advocates  of  the 
Bible,  in  their  answers  to  the  former  part  of  the  Jlge  of  Reason, 
undertake  to  say,  and  they  put  some  stress  thereon,  that  the  au 
thenticity  of  the  Bible  is  as  well  established  as  that  of  any  other 
ancient  book  ;  as  if  our  belief  of  the  one  could  become  any  rule 
for  our  belief  of  the  other. 

I  know,  however,  but  of  one  ancient  book  that  authoritatively 
challenges  universal  consent  and  belief,  and  that  is,  Euclid's 
Elements  of  Geometry  ;*  and  the  reason  is,  because  it  is  a  book  of 
self-evident  demonstration,  entirely  independent  of  its  author,  and 
of  every  thing  relating  to  time,  place  and  circumstance.  The  mat- 
ters contained  in  that  book  would  have  the  same  authority  they 
now  have,  had  they  been  written  by  any  other  person,  or  had  the 
work  been  anonymous,  or  had  the  author  never  been  known  ;  for 
the  identical  certainty  of  who  was  the  author,  makes  no  part  of  our 
belief  of  the  matters  contained  in  the  book.  But  it  is  quite  other- 
with  with  respect  to  the  books  ascribed  to  Moses,  to  Joshua,  to 
Samuel,  &c.  those  are  books  oi  testimony,  and  they  testify  of  things 
naturally  incredible  ;  and,  therefore,  the  whole  of  our  belief,  as  to 
the  authenticity  of  those  books,  rest,  in  the  first  place,  upon  the 
certainty  that  they  were  written  by  Moses,  Joshua,  and  Samuel ; 
secondly,  upon  the  credit  we  give  to  their  testimony.  We  may 
believe  the  first,  that  is,  we  may  believe  the  certainty  of  the 
authorship,  and  yet  not  the  testimony  ;  in  the  same  manner  that 
we  may  believe  that  a  certair.  person  gave  evidence  upon  a  case 
and  yet  not  believe  the  evidence  that  he  gave.  But  if  it  should  be 
found,  that  the  books  ascribed  to  Moses,  Joshua,  and  Samuel, 
were  not  written  by  Moses,  Joshua,  and  Samuel,  and  every  part  of 
the  authority  and  authenticity  of  those  books  is  gone  at  once  ;  for 
there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  forged  or  invented  testimony ; 
neither  can  there  be  anonymous  testimony,  more  especially  as  to 
things  naturally  incredible  ;  such  as  that  of  talking  with  God  face 

*  Euclia,  according  to  chronological  history,  lired  three  hundred  years  be- 
fore Christ,  and  aoout  one  hundred  before  Archimedes ;  he  was  of  the  cifv 
of  Alexandria,  in  Egypt, 


72  THE    JLGK    OF    UEASON.  [fART   II. 

to  face,  or  that  of  the  sun  and  moon  standing  still  at  the  commana 
of  a  man.  The  greatest  part  of  the  other  ancient  books  are  worka 
of  genius  ;  of  which  kind  are  those  ascribed  to  Homer,  to  Plato, 
to  Aristotle,  to  Demosthenes,  to  Cicero,  &c.  Here  again  the 
author  is  not  essential  in  the  credit  we  give  to  any  of  those  works ; 
for,  as  works  of  genius,  they  would  have  the  same  merit  they 
have  now,  were  they  anonymous.  Nobody  believes  the  Trojan 
story,  as  related  by  Homer,  to  be  true — for  it  is  the  poet  only  that 
is  admired  :  and  the  merit  of  the  poet  will  remain,  though  the 
story  be  fabulous.  But  if  we  disbelieve  the  matters  related  by 
the  Bible  authors  (Moses  for  instance)  as  we  disbelieve  the  things 
related  by  Homer,  there  remains  nothing  of  Moses  in  our  estima- 
tion, but  an  impostor.  As  to  the  ancient  historians,  from  Hero- 
dotus to  Tacitus,  we  credit  them  as  far  as  they  relate  things  pro- 
bable and  credible,  and  no  further  :  for  if  we  do,  we  must  believe 
the  two  miracles  which  Tacitus  relates  were  performed  by  Ves- 
pasian, that  of  curing  a  lame  man,  and  a  blind  man,  in  just  the 
same  manner  as  the  same  things  are  told  of  Jesus  Christ  by  his 
historians.  We  must  also  believe  the  miracles  cited  by  Josephus, 
that  of  the  sea  of  Pamphilia  opening  to  let  Alexander  and  his 
army  pass,  as  is  related  of  the  Red  Sea  in  Exodus.  These  mi- 
racles are  quite  as  well  authenticated  as  the  Bible  miracles,  and 
yet  we  do  not  believe  them  ;  consequently  the  degree  of  evidence 
necessary  to  establish  our  belief  of  things  naturally  incredible, 
whether  in  the  Bible  or  elsewhere,  is  far  greater  than  that  which 
obtains  our  belief  to  natural  and  probable  things  ;  and,  therefore, 
the  advocates  for  the  Bible  have  no  claim  to  our  belief  of  the 
Bible,  because  that  we  believe  things  stated  in  other  ancient 
writings  ;  since  we  believe  the  things  stated  in  these  writings  no 
further  than  they  are  probable  and  credible,  or  because  they  are 
self-evident,  like  Euclid  ;  or  admire  them  because  they  are  ele- 
gant, like  Homer  ;  or  approve  them  because  they  are  sedate,  like 
Plato  ;  or  judicious,  like  Aristotle. 

Having  premised  these  things,  I  proceed  to  examine  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  Bible,  and  I  begin  with  what  are  called  the  five  books 
of  Moses,  Genesis,  Exodus,  Leviticus,  JSTumbers,  and  Deutero- 
nomy. My  intention  is  to  show  that  those  books  are  spurious, 
and  that  Moses  is  not  the  author  of  them  ;  and  still  further,  that 
they  were  not  written  in  the  time  of  Moses,  nor  till  several  hun- 
dred years  afterwards  ;  that  they  are  no  other  than  an  attempted 


paiit  ii.]  the  age  of  rkabon.  73 

history  of  the  life  of  Moses,  and  of  the  times  in  which  he  is  said  to 
have  lived,  and  also  of  the  times  prior  thereto,  written  by  some 
very  ignorant  and  stupid  pretenders  to  authorship,  several  hundred 
years  after  the  death  of  Moses,  as  men  now  write  histories  of 
things  that  happened,  or  are  supposed  to  have  happened,  several 
hundred  or  several  thousand  years  ago. 

The  evidence  that  I  shall  produce  in  this  case  is  from  the  books 
themselves  ;  and  I  will  confine  my  self  to  this  evidence  only. — 
Where  I  to  refer  for  proof  to  any  of  the  ancient  authors,  whom 
the  advocates  of  the  Bible  call  profane  authors,  they  would  con- 
trovert th^t  authority,  as  I  controvert  theirs  ;  I  will  therefore  meet 
them  on  their  own  ground,  and  oppose  them  with  their  own 
weapon,  the  Bible. 

In  the  first  place,  there  is  no  affirmative  evidence  that  Moses  is 
the  author  of  those  books  ;  and  that  he  is  the  author,  is  altogether 
an  unfounded  opinion,  got  abroad  nobody  knows  how.  The  style 
and  manner  in  which  those  books  are  written,  give  no  room  to  be- 
lieve, or  even  to  suppose, they  were  written  by  Moses;  for  it  is  alto- 
gether the  style  and  manner  of  another  person  speaking  of  Moses. 
In  Exodus,  Leviticus  and  Numbers,  (for  every  thing  in  Genesis  is 
prior  to  the  times  of  Moses  and  not  the  least  allusion  is  made  to 
him  therein,)  the  whole,  I  say,  of  these  books  is  in  the  third  person  ; 
it  is  always,  the  Lord  said  unto  JVJoses,  or  M.oses  said  unto  the 
Lord :  or  JV[oses  said  unto  the  people,  or  the  people  said  unto 
JSIoses ;  and  this  is  the  style  and  manner  that  historians  use,  in 
speaking  of  the  person  whose  lives  and  actions  they  are  writing, 
li  may  be  said  that  a  man  may  speak  of  himself  in  the  third  per- 
son ;  and,  therefore,  it  may  be  supposed  that  Moses  did  ;  but 
supposition  proves  nothing ;  and  if  the  advocates  for  the  belief 
that  Moses  wrote  those  books  himself,  have  nothing  better  to 
advance  than  supposition,  they  may  as  well  be  silent. 

But  granting  the  grammatical  right,  that  Moses  might  speak  of 
himself  in  the  third  person,  because  any  man  might  speak  of  him- 
self in  that  manner,  it  cannot  be  admitted  as  a  fact  in  those  books, 
that  it  is  Moses  who  speaks,  without  rendering  M'»'»«  truly  ridicu- 
lous and  absurd  : — for  example.  Numbers,  chap,  xii.  ver.  3. 
•*  JVow  the  man  Mosea  was  very  meek,  above  all  men  which  were  on 
the  face  of  the  earth.^^  If  Moses  said  this  of  himself,  instead  of 
being  the  meekest  of  men,  he  was  one  of  the  most  vain  and  arro- 
gant of  coxcombs  ;  and  the  advocates  for  those  books  may  now 
10 


74  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART    If. 

take  which  side  they  please,  for  both  sides  are  against  them  ;  if 
Moses  was  not  the  author,  the  books  are  without  authority;  and  if 
he  was  the  author,  the  author  was  without  credit,  because  to  boast 
o(  meekness,  is  the  reverse  of  meekness,  and  is  a  lie  in  sentiment. 

In  Deuteronomy,  the  style  and  manner  of  writing  marks  more 
evidently  than  in  the  former  books,  that  Moses  is  not  the  writer. 
The  manner  here  used  is  dramatical :  the  writer  opens  the  subject 
by  a  short  introductory  discourse,  and  then  introduces  Moses  in 
the  act  of  speaking,  and  when  he  has  made  Moses  finish  his  har- 
rangue,  he  (the  writer)  resumes  his  own  part,  and  speaks  till  he 
brings  Moses  forward  again,  and  at  last  closes  the  scene  with  an 
account  of  the  death,  funeral,  and  character  of  Moses. 

This  interchange  of  speakers  occurs  four  times  in  this  book : 
from  the  first  verse  of  the  first  chapter,  to  the  end  of  the  fifth  verse, 
it  is  the  writer  who  speaks  ;  he  then  introduces  Moses  as  in  the 
act  of  making  his  harrangue,  and  this  continues  to  the  end  of  the 
40th  verse  of  the  fourth  chapter  ;  here  the  writer  drops  Moses, 
and  speaks  historically  of  what  was  done  in  consequence  of  what 
Moses,  when  living,  is  supposed  to  have  said,  and  which  the 
writer  has  dramatically  rehearsed. 

The  writer  opens  the  subject  again  in  the  first  verse  of  the  fifth 
chapter,  though  it  is  only  by  saying,  that  Moses  called  the  people 
of  Israel  together  ;  he  then  introduces  Moses  as  before,  and  con- 
tinues him,  as  in  the  act  of  speaking,  to  the  end  of  the  26th  chap- 
ter. He  does  the  same  thing  at  the  beginning  of  the  27th  chap- 
ter ;  and  continues  Moses,  as  in  the  act  of  speaking,  to  the  end 
of  the  28th  chapter.  At  the  29th  chapter  the  writer  speaks 
again  through  the  whole  of  the  first  verse,  and  the  first  line 
of  the  second  verse,  where  he  introduces  Moses  for  the  last  time, 
and  continues  him,  as  in  the  act  of  speaking,  to  the  end  of  the  33d 
chapter. 

The  writer  having  now  finished  the  rehearsal  on  the  part  of 
Moses,  comes  forward,  and  speaks  through  the  whole  of  the  last 
chapter ;  he  begins  by  telling  the  reader,  that  Moses  went  up  to 
the  top  of  Pisgi  1 ;  that  he  saw  from  thence  the  land  which  (the 
writer  says)  had  been  promised  to  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob  ; 
that  he,  Moses,  died  there,  in  the  land  of  Moab,  but  that  no  man 
knoweth  of  his  sepulchre  unto  this  day,  that  is,  unto  the  time  in 
which  the  writer  lived,  who  wrote  the  book  of  Deuteronomy.  The 
writer  then  tells  us,  that  Moses  was  110  years  of  age  when  he 


PART  11.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  75 

died — that  his  eye  was  not  dim,  nor  his  natural  force  abated ; 
and  he  concludes  by  saying,  that  there  arose  not  a  prophet  since 
in  Israel  like  unto  Moses,  whom,  says  this  anonymous  writer,  the 
Lord  knew  face  to  face. 

Having  thus  shown,  as  far  as  grammatical  evidence  applies,  that 
Moses  was  not  the  writer  of  those  books,  I  will,  after  making  a 
few  observations  on  the  inconsistencies  of  the  writer  of  the  book 
of  Deuteronomy,  proceed  to  show,  from  the  historical  and  chro- 
nological evidence  contained  in  those  books,  that  Moses,  was  not^ 
because  he  could  not  be,  the  writer  of  them ;  and  consequently, 
that  there  is  no  authority  for  believing,  that  the  inhuman  and 
horrid  butcheries  of  men,  women,  and  children,  told  in  those 
books,  were  done,  as  those  books  say  they  were,  at  the  command 
of  God.  It  is  a  duty  incumbent  on  every  true  Deist,  that  he 
vindicate  the  moral  justice  of  God  against  the  calumnies  of  the 
Bible. 

The  writer  of  the  book  of  Deuteronomy,  whoever  he  was,  (for  it 
Is  an  anonymous  work,)  is  obsure,  and  also  in  contradiction  with 
himself,  in  the  account  he  has  given  of  Moses. 

After  telling  that  Moses  went  to  the  top  of  Pisgah  (and  it  does 
not  appear  from  any  account  that  he  ever  came  down  again)  he 
tells  us,  that  Moses  died  there  in  the  land  of  Moab,  and  that  he 
buried  him  in  a  valley  in  the  land  of  Moab ;  but  as  there  is  no 
antecedent  to  the  pronoun  he,  there  is  no  knowing  who  he  ■was 
that  did  bury  him.  If  the  writer  meant  that  he  (God)  buried  him, 
how  should  he  (the  writer)  know  it?  or  why  should  we  (the 
readers)  believe  him?  since  we  know  not  who  the  writer  was  that 
tells  us  so,  for  certainly  Moses  could  not  himself  tell  where  ho 
was  buried. 

The  writer  also  tells  us,  that  no  man  knoweth  where  the  sepulchre 
of  Moses  is  unto  this  day,  meaning  the  time  in  which  this  writer 
lived  ;  how  then  should  he  know  that  Moses  was  buried  in  a 
valley  in  the  land  of  Moab  ?  for  as  the  writer  lived  long  after  the 
time  of  Moses,  as  is  evident  from  his  using  the  expression  of  unto 
this  day,  meaning  a  great  length  of  time  after  the  death  of  Moses, 
he  certainly  was  not  at  his  funeral  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
impossible  that  Moses  himself  could  say,  that  jjo  man  hnowetn 
where  the  stpxdchre  is  unto  this  day.  To  make  Moses  the  speaker, 
would  be  an  improvement  on  the  play  of  a  child  that  hides  hunseit* 
and  cries  nobody  can  find  me ;  nobody  can  find  Moses. 


76  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART    II. 

This  writer  has  no  where  told  us  how  he  came  by  the  speeches 
which  he  has  put  into  the  mouth  of  Moses  to  speak,  and,  therefore, 
we  have  a  right  to  conclude,  that  he  either  composed  them  himself* 
or  wrote  them  from  oral  tradition.  One  or  the  other  of  these  is 
the  more  probable,  since  he  has  given,  in  the  fifth  chapter,  a  table 
of  commandments,  in  which  that  called  the  fourth  commandment 
is  different  from  the  fourth  commandment  in  the  twentieth  chapter 
of  Exodus.  In  that  of  Exodus,  the  reason  given  for  keeping  the 
seventh  day  is,  "  because  (says  the  commandment)  God  made 
the  heavens  and  the  earth  in  six  days,  and  rested  on  the  seventh  ;'* 
but  in  that  of  Deuteronomy,  the  reason  given  is,  that  it  was  the 
day  on  which  the  children  of  Israel  came  out  of  Egypt,  and 
therefore,  says  this  commandment,  the  Lord  thy  God  commanded 
thee  to  keep  the  sabbath-day.  This  makes  no  mention  of  the 
creation,  nor  that  of  the  coming  out  of  Egypt.  There  are  also 
many  things  given  as  laws  of  Moses  in  this  book,  that  are  not  to 
be  found  in  any  of  the  other  books  ;  among  which  is  that  inhuman 
and  brutal  law,  chap.  xxi.  ver.  18, 19,  20,  21,  which  authorizes 
parents,  the  father  and  the  mother,  to  bring  their  own  children  to 
have  them  stoned  to  death  for  what  it  is  pleased  to  call  stubborn- 
ness. But  priests  have  always  been  fond  of  preaching  up  Deu- 
teronomy, for  Deuteronomy  preaches  up  tythes  ;  and  it  is  from 
this  book,  chap.  xxv.  ver.  4,  they  have  taken  the  phrase,  and 
applied  it  to  tything,  that  thou  shall  not  muzzle  the  ox  when  he 
treadeth  out  the  corn :  and  that  this  might  not  escape  observation, 
they  have  noted  it  in  (he  table  of  contents  at  the  head  of  the  chap- 
ter, though  it  is  only  a  single  verse  of  less  than  two  lines.  O  ! 
priests  !  priests  !  ye  are  willing  to  be  compared  to  an  ox,  for  the 
sake  of  tythes.  Though  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  know  identically 
who  the  writer  of  Deuteronomy  was,  it  is  not  difficult  to  discover 
him  professionally,  that  he  was  some  Jewish  priest,  who  lived,  as 
I  shall  show  in  the  course  of  this  work,  at  least  three  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  after  the  time  of  Moses. 

I  come  now  to  speak  of  the  historical  and  chronological 
evidence.  The  chronology  that  I  shall  use  is  the  Bible  chro- 
nology ;  for  I  mean  not  to  go  out  of  the  Bible  for  evidence  of  any 
thing,  but  to  make  the  Bible  itself  prove  historically  and  chronolo- 
gically, that  Moses  is  not  the  author  of  the  books  ascribed  to  him. 
It  is,  therefore,  proper  that  I  inform  the  reader,  (such  an  one  at 
least  as  may  not  have  the  opportunity  of  knowing  it,)  that  in  the 


»ART    II.J  THE    iGE    OF    REASON.  T7 

larger  Bibles,  and  also  in  some  smaller  ones,  there  is  a  series  oi 
chronology  printed  in  the  margin  of  every  page,  for  the  purpose  ot 
sho>ving  how  long  the  historical  matters  stated  in  each  page  hap- 
pened, or  are  supposed  to  have  happened,  before  Christ,  and,  con- 
sequently, the  distance  of  time  between  one  historical  circum- 
stance and  another. 

I  begin  with  the  book  of  Genesis.  In  the  14th  chapter  of  Gene- 
sis, the  writer  gives  an  account  of  Lot  being  taken  prisoner  in  a 
battle  between  the  four  kings  against  five,  and  carried  off;  and 
that  when  the  account  of  Lot  being  taken,  came  to  Abraham,  he 
armed  all  his  household,  and  marched  to  rescue  Lot  from  the 
captors  ;  and  that  he  pursued  them  unto  Dan.  (ver.  14.) 

To  show  in  what  manner  this  expression  o^ pursuing  them  unto 
Dan  applies  to  the  case  in  question,  I  will  refer  to  two  circum- 
stances, the  one  in  America,  the  other  in  France.  The  city 
now  called  New- York,  in  America,  was  originally  New  Amster- 
dam ;  and  the  town  in  France,  lately  called  Havre  Marat,  was 
before  called  Havre  de  Grace.  New  Amsterdam  was  changed  to 
New-York  in  the  year  1664  ;  Havre  de  Grace  to  Havre  Marat  in 
1793.  Should,  therefore,  any  writing  be  found,  though  without 
date,  in  which  the  name  of  New- York  should  be  mentioned,  it 
would  be  certain  evidence  that  such  a  writing  could  not  have  been 
vrritten  before,  and  must  have  been  written  after  New  Amster- 
dam was  changed  to  New-York,  and  consequently  not  till  after 
the  year  1664,  or  at  least  during  the  course  of  that  year.  And,  in 
like  manner,  any  dateless  writing,  with  the  name  of  Havre  Marat, 
would  be  certain  evidence  that  such  a  writing  must  have  been 
written  after  Havre  de  Grace  became  Havre  Marat,  and  conse- 
quently not  till  after  the  year  1793,  or  at  least  during  the  course 
of  that  year. 

I  now  come  to  the  application  of  those  cases,  and  to  show  that 
there  was  no  such  place  as  Dan,  till  many  years  after  the  death  of 
Moses  ;  and  consequently,  that  Moses  could  not  be  the  writer  of 
the  book  of  Genesis,  where  this  account  of  pursuing  them  unto 
Dan  is  given. 

The  place  that  is  called  Dan  in  the  Bible  was  originally  a  town 
of  the  Gentiles,  called  Laish  ;  and  when  the  tribe  of  Dan  seized 
upon  this  town,  they  changed  its  name  to  Dan,  in  commemoration 
of  Dan,  who  was  the  father  of  that  tribe,  and  the  great  giandsoii 
of  Abraham. 


Tf?  THE    AGE    OF    REASOX.  [PART    II. 

To  establish  this  in  proof,  it  is  necessary  to  refer  from  Genesii 
to  the  18th  chapter  of  the  book  called  the  book  of  Judges.  It  \a 
there  said  (ver.  27)  that  they  (the  Danites)  come  unto  Laish  to  a 
people  that  were  quiet  and  secure,  and  they  smote  them  with  the 
edge  of  the  sivord  (the  Bible  is  filled  with  murder)  and  burned  the 
city  with  fire  ;  and  they  huilt  a  city,  (ver.  28,)  and  dwelt  therein, 
and  they  called  the  name  of  the  city  Dan,  after  the  name  of  Dan, 
flieir  father,  howheit  the  name  of  the  city  was  Laish  at  the  first. 

This  account  of  the  Danites  taking  possession  of  Laish  and 
changing  it  to  Dan,  is  placed  in  the  book  of  Judges  immediately 
after  the  death  of  Sampson.  The  death  of  Sampson  is  said  to 
have  happened  1120  years  before  Christ,  and  that  of  Moses  1451 
before  Christ ;  and,  therefore,  according  to  the  historical  arrange- 
ment, the  place  was  not  called  Dan  till  331  years  after  the  death 
of  Moses. 

There  is  a  striking  confusion  between  the  historical  and  the 
chronological  arrangement  in  the  Book  of  Judges.  The  five 
last  chapters,  as  they  stand  in  the  book,  17,  18,  19,  20,  21,  are 
put  chronologically  before  all  the  preceding  chapters ;  they 
are  made  to  be  28  years  before  the  16th  chapter,  266  before 
the  15th,  245  before  the  13th,  195  before  the  9th,  90  before  the 
4th,  and  15  years  before  the  first  chapter.  This  shows  the  un- 
certain and  fabulous  state  of  the  Bible.  According  to  the  chrono- 
logical arrangement,  the  taking  of  Laish,  and  giving  it  the  name 
of  Dan,  is  made  to  be  20  years  after  the  death  of  Joshua,  who  was 
the  successor  of  Moses  ;  and  by  the  historical  order  as  it  stands 
in  the  book,  it  is  made  to  be  306  years  after  the  death  of  Joshua, 
and  331  after  that  of  Moses  ;  but  they  both  exclude  Moses  from 
being  the  writer  of  Genesis,  because,  according  to  either  of  the 
statements,  no  such  place  as  Dan  existed  in  the  time  of  Moses  ; 
and,  therefore,  the  writer  of  Genesis  must  have  been  some  person 
who  lived  after  the  town  of  Laish  had  the  name  of  Dan  ;  and  who 
that  person  wis,  nobody  knows  ;  and  consequently  the  book  of 
Genesis  is  anonymous  and  without  authority. 

I  proceed  now  to  state  another  point  of  historical  and  chrono- 
logical evidence,  and  to  show  therefrom,  as  in  the  preceding  case, 
that  Moses  is  not  the  author  of  the  book  of  Genesis. 

In  the  36th  chapter  of  Genesis  there  is  given  a  genealogy  of  the 
sons  ond  descendants  of  Esau,  who  are  called  Edomites,  and  also 
a  list,  by  name,  of  the  kings  of  Edom  ;  in  enumerating  of  which. 


PART    II.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  79 

it  is  said,  verse  31,  ^^  And  these  are  the  kings  that  reigned  in 
Kdom,  before  there  reigned  any  king  over  the  children  of  IsraeV 

Now,  were  any  dateless  writings  to  be  found,  in  which,  speak- 
ing of  anj  past  events,  the  writer  should  say,  these  things  happen- 
ed before  there  was  any  Congress  in  America,  or  before  there 
was  any  Convention  in  France,  it  would  be  evidence  that  such 
writings  could  not  have  been  written  before,  and  could  only  be 
written  after  there  was  a  Congress  in  America,  or  a  Convention  ir 
France,  as  the  case  might  be  ;  and,  consequently,  that  it  could  not 
be  written  by  any  person  who  died  before  there  was  a  Congress 
in  the  one  country,  or  a  Convention  in  the  other. 

Nothing  is  more  frequent,  as  well  in  history  as  in  conversation, 
than  to  refer  to  a  fact  in  the  room  of  a  date  :  it  is  most  natuial  so 
to  do,  because  a  fact  fixes  itself  in  the  memory  better  than  a 
date ;  secondly,  because  the  fact  includes  the  date,  and  serves  to 
excite  two  ideas  at  once  ;  and  this  manner  of  speaking  by  circum- 
stances implies  as  positively  that  the  fact  alluded  to  \s  pasty  as  if 
it  was  so  expressed.  When  a  person  speaking  upon  any  matier, 
says,  it  was  before  I  was  married,  or  before  my  son  was  born,  or 
before  I  went  to  America,  or  before  I  went  to  France,  it  is  abso- 
lutely understood,  and  intended  to  be  understood,  that  he  has  been 
married,  that  he  has  had  a  son,  that  he  has  been  in  America,  or 
been  in  France.  Language  does  not  admit  of  using  this  mode  of 
expression  in  any  other  sense  ;  and  whenever  such  an  expression 
is  found  any  where,  it  can  only  be  understood  in  the  sense  in 
which  only  it  could  have  been  used. 

The  passage,  therefore,  that  1  have  quoted — "  that  these  are  the 
kings  that  reigned  in  Edom,  before  there  reigned  amj  king  over 
the  children  of  Israel,"  could  only  have  been  written  after  the 
first  king  began  to  reign  over  them  ;  and,  consequently,  that  the 
book  of  Genesis  so  far  from  having  been  written  by  Moses,  could 
not  have  been  written  till  the  time  of  Saul  at  least.  This  is  the 
positive  sense  of  the  passage ;  but  the  expression,  amj  king,  im- 
plies more  kings  than  one,  at  least  it  implies  two,  and  this  will 
carry  it  to  the  time  of  David  ;  and,  if  taken  in  a  general  sense, 
it  carries  itself  through  all  the  time  of  the  Jewish  monarchy. 

Had  we  met  with  this  verse  in  any  part  of  the  Bible  that  pro- 
fessed to  have  been  written  after  kings  began  to  reign  in  Israel,  it 
would  have  been  impossible  not  to  have  seen  the  application  of  it. 
It  happens  then  that  this  is  the  case ;  the  two  books  of  Chro 


so  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II. 

nicies,  which  gave  a  history  of  all  the  kings  of  Israel,  are  pro- 
fesaedly,  as  well  as  in  fact,  written  after  the  Jewish  monarchy  be- 
gan ;  and  this  verse  that  I  have  quoted,  and  all  the  remaining 
verses  of  the  36th  chapter  of  Genesis,  are,  word  for  word,  in  the 
first  coapter  of  Chronicles,  beginning  at  the  43d  verse. 

It  was  with  consistency  that  the  writer  of  the  Chronicles  could 
say,  as  he  has  said,  1st  Chron.  chap.  i.  ver.  43,  These  are  the  kings 
that  reigned  in  Edam,  before  there  reigned  any  king  over  the 
children  of  Israel,  because  he  was  going  to  give,  and  has  given  a 
list  of  the  kings  that  had  reigned  in  Israel;  but  as  it  is  impossible 
that  the  same  expression  could  have  been  used  before  that  period, 
it  is  as  certain  as  anything  can  be  proved  from  historical  language, 
that  this  part  of  Genesis  is  taken  from  Chronicles,  and  that  Ge- 
nesis is  not  so  old  as  Chronicles,  and  probably  not  so  old  as  the 
book  of  Homer,  or  as  ^sop's  Fables,  admitting  Homer  to  have 
been,  as  the  tables  of  chronology  state,  contemporary  with  David 
or  Solomon,  and  ^sop  to  have  lived  about  the  end  of  th^ 
Jewish  monarchy. 

Take  away  from  Genesis  the  belief  that  Moses  was  the  author, 
on  which  only  the  strange  belief  that  it  is  the  word  of  God  has 
stood,  and  there  remains  nothing  of  Genesis  but  an  anonymous 
book  of  stories,  fables,  and  traditionary  or  invented  absurdities,  or 
of  downright  lies.  The  story  of  Eve  and  the  serpent,  and  of 
Noah  and  his  ark,  drops  to  a  level  with  the  Arabian  Tales,  with- 
out the  merit  of  being  entertaining ;  and  the  account  of  men  living 
to  eight  and  nine  hundred  years  becomes  as  fabulous  as  the  im- 
mortality of  the  giants  of  the  Mythology. 

Besides,  the  charactet  of  Moses,  as  stated  in  the  Bible,  is  the 
most  horrid  that  can  be  imagined.  If  those  accounts  be  true,  he 
was  the  wretch  that  first  began  and  carried  on  wars  on  the 
score,  or  on  the  pretence  of  religion  ;  and  under  that  mask,  or 
that  infatuation,  committed  the  most  unexampled  atrocities  that 
are  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  any  nation,  of  which  I  will  slate 
only  one  instance. 

When  the  Jewish  army  returned  from  one  of  their  murdering 
and  plundering  excursions,  the  account  goes  on  as  follows, 
Numbers,  chap.  xxxi.  ver.  13. 

*'And  Moses,  and  Eleazer  the  priest,  and  all  the  princes  of  the 
congregation,  went  forth  to  meet  them  without  the  camp ;  and 
Moses  was  wroth  with  the  officers  of  the  host,  with  the  captains 


FART   II.]  THE    AGE    OF    KEASON.  $) 

over  thousands,  and  captains  over  hundreds,  which  came  from 
the  battle  ;  and  Moses  said  unto  them,  Have  ye  saved  all  tht 
tcomen  alive  ?  behold,  these  caused  the  children  of  Israel,  through 
the  council  of  Balaam,  to  commit  trespass  against  the  Lord  in 
the  matter  of  Peor,  and  there  was  a  plague  among  the  congrega- 
tion of  the  Lord.  Now  therefore,  kill  every  male  among  the  lil- 
tle  ones,  and  kill  every  troman  that  hath  known  a  man  by  lying 
with  him ;  but  all  the  rcuman  children  that  have  not  knoicn  a  man 
by  lying  ivith  him  keep  alive  for  yomselves. 

Among  the  detestable  villains  that  in  any  period  of  the  world 
have  disgraced  the  name  of  man,  it  is  impossible  to  find  a  greater 
than  Moses,  if  this  account  be  true.  Here  is  an  order  to  butcher 
the  boys,  to  massacre  the  mothers,  and  debauch  the  daughters. 

Let  any  mother  put  herself  in  the  situation  of  those  mothers  ; 
one  child  murdered,  another  destined  to  violation,  and  herself  in 
the  hands  of  an  executioner :  let  any  daughter  put  herself  in  the 
situation  of  those  daughters,  destined  as  a  prey  to  the  murderers 
of  a  mother  and  a  brother,  and  what  will  be  their  feelings  ?  It  is 
in  vain  that  we  attempt  to  impose  upon  nature,  for  nature  will 
have  her  course,  and  the  religion  that  tortures  all  her  social  ties  is 
a  false  religion. 

Aftei  this  detestable  order,  follows  an  account  of  the  plunder 
taken,  and  the  manner  of  dividing  it;  and  here  it  is  that  the  pro- 
phaneness  of  priestly  hypocrisy  increases  the  catalogue  of  crimes. 
Verse  37,  "  And  the  Lord's  tribute  of  the  sheep  was  six  hundred 
and  three  score  and  fifteen  ;  and  the  beeves  was  thirty  and  six 
thousand,  of  which  the  Lord's  tribute  was  three  score  and  twelve ; 
and  the  asses  were  thirty  thousand,  of  which  the  Lord's  tribute 
was  three-score  and  one  ;  and  the  persons  were  thirty  thousan<J^ 
of  which  the  Lord's  tribute  was  thirty  and  two."  In  short,  the 
matters  contained  in  this  chapter,  as  well  as  in  many  other  parts 
of  the  Bible,  are  too  horrid  for  humanity  to  read,  or  for  decency 
to  hear ;  for  it  appears,  from  the  35th  verse  of  this  chapter,,  that 
the  number  of  women-children  consigned  to  debauchery  by  the 
order  of  Moses  was  thirty-two  thousand. 

People  in  general  know  not  what  wickedness  there  is  in  this 
pretended  word  of  God.  Brought  up  in  habits  of  superstition,, 
they  take  it  for  granted  that  the  Bible  is  true,  arwl  that  it  is  good  ; 
they  permit  themselves  not  to  doubt  of  it,  and  they  carry  the  ideas- 
they  form  of  the  benevolence  of  the  Almightj  to  the  book  vvhichi 
11 


82  THE    AGE    OF    REASOX.  [PART  II. 

they  have  been  taught  to  believe  was  written  by  his  authority. 
Good  heavens !  it  is  quite  another  thing ;  it  is  a  book  of  lies, 
wickedness,  and  blasphemy  ;  for  what  can  be  greater  blasphemy, 
than  to  ascribe  the  wickedness  of  man  to  the  orders  of  the  Al- 
mighty 1 

But  to  return  to  my  subject,  that  of  showing  that  Moses  is  not 
the  author  of  the  books  ascribed  to  him,  and  that  the  Bible  is  spu- 
rious. The  two  instances  I  have  already  given  would  be  suffi- 
cient, without  any  additional  evidence,  to  invalidate  the  authen- 
ticity of  any  book  that  pretended  to  be  four  or  five  hundred  years 
more  ancient  than  the  matters  it  speaks  of,  or  refers  to,  as  facts  ; 
for  in  the  case  of  pursuing  them  unto  Dan,  and  of  the  kings  that 
reigned  over  the  children  of  Israel,  not  even  the  flimsy  pretence 
of  prophesy  can  be  pleaded.  The  expressions  are  in  the  preter 
tense,  and  it  would  be  downright  idiotism  to  say  that  a  man  could 
prophesy  in  the  preter  tense. 

But  there  are  many  other  passages  scattered  throughout  those 
books  that  unite  in  the  same  point  of  evidence.  It  is  said  in 
Exodus,  (another  of  the  books  ascribed  to  Moses,)  chap.  xvi.  verse 
34,  "  And  the  children  of  Israel  did  eat  manna  imtil  they  came  to 
a  land  inhabited;  they  did  eat  manna  until  they  came  unto  the 
borders  of  the  land  of  Canaan. 

Whether  the  children  of  Israel  ate  manna  or  not,  or  what  manna 
was,  or  whether  it  was  any  thing  more  than  a  kind  of  fungus  or 
small  mushroom,  or  other  vegetable  substance  common  to  that 
part  of  the  country,  makes  nothing  to  my  argument ;  all  that  I 
mean  to  show  is,  that  it  is  not  Moses  that  could  write  this  account, 
because  the  account  extends  itself  beyond  the  life  and  time  of 
Moses.  Moses,  according  to  the  Bible,  (but  it  is  such  a  book  of 
lies  and  contradictions  there  is  no  knowing  which  part  to  believe, 
or  whether  any,)  dies  in  the  wilderness,  and  never  came  upon  the 
borders  of  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  and,  consequently,  it  could  not 
be  he  that  said  what  the  children  of  Israel  did,  or  what  they  ate 
when  they  came  there.  This  account  of  eating  manna,  which 
they  tell  us  was  written  by  Moses,  extends  itself  to  the  time  of 
Joshua,  the  successor  of  Moses,  as  appears  by  the  account  given 
in  the  booli  of  Joshua,  after  the  children  of  Israel  had  passed  the 
r;ver  Jordan,  and  came  unto  the  borders  of  the  land  of  Canaan. 
Joshua,  chap.  v.  ver.  12.  "  And  the  manna  ceased  on  the  morrowj 
after  they  had  eaften  of  the  old  corn  of  the  land ;  neither  had  the 


TART  II.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  83 

children  of  Israel  manna  any  more,  but  they  did  eat  of  the  fntit 
of  the  land  of  Canaan  that  year.^^ 

But  a  more  remarkable  instance  than  this  occurs  in  Deuterono- 
my ;  which,  while  it  shows  that  Moses  could  not  be  the  writer  of 
that  book,  shows  also  the  fabulous  notions  that  prevailed  at  that 
time  about  giants.  In  the  third  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  among 
the  conquests  said  to  be  made  by  Moses,  is  an  account  of  the 
taking  of  Og,  king  of  Bashan,  ver.  11.  "  For  only  Og,  king  of 
Bashan,  remained  of  the  race  of  giants  ;  behold,  his  bedstead  was 
a  bedstead  of  iron  ;  is  it  not  in  Rabbath  of  the  children  of  Am- 
nion? nine  cubits  was  the  length  thereof,  and  four  cubits  the 
breadth  of  it,  after  the  cubit  of  a  man."  A  cubit  is  1  foot  9  888- 
lOOOths  inches  ;  the  length,  therefore,  of  the  bed  was  16  feet  4 
inches,  and  the  breadth  7  feet  4  inches  ;  thus  much  for  this  giant's 
bed.  Now  for  the  historical  part,  which,  though  the  evidence  is 
not  so  direct  and  positive,  as  in  the  former  cases,  it  is  nevertheless 
very  presumable  and  corroborating  evidence,  and  is  better  than 
the  best  evidence  on  the  contrary  side. 

The  writer,  by  way  of  proving  the  existence  of  this  giant,  refers 
to  his  bed,  as  an  ancient  relic,  and  says,  is  it  not  in  Rabbath  (or 
Rabbah)  of  the  children  of  Ammon  ?  meaning  that  it  is  ;  for  such 
is  frequently  the  Bible  method  of  affirming  a  thing.  But  it  could 
not  be  Moses  that  said  this,  because  Moses  could  know  nothing 
about  Rabbah,  nor  of  what  was  in  it.  Rabbah  was  not  a  city  be- 
longing to  this  giant  king,  nor  was  it  one  of  the  cities  that  Moses 
took.  The  knowledge,  therefore,  that  this  bed  was  at  Rabbah, 
and  of  the  particulars  of  its  dimensions,  must  be  referred  to  the 
time  when  Rabbah  was  taken,  and  this  was  not  till  four  hundred 
years  after  the  death  of  Moses  ;  for  which,  see  2  Sam.  chap.  xii. 
ver.  26.  "  And  Joab  (David's  general)  fought  against  Rabbah 
of  the  children  of  Ammon,  and  took  the  royal  city." 

As  I  am  not  undertaking  to  point  out  all  the  contradictions  in 
time,  place  and  circumstance,  that  abound  in  the  books  ascribed  to 
Moses,  and  which  prove  to  a  demonstration  that  those  books  could 
not  be  written  by  Moses,  nor  in  the  time  of  Moses  :  I  prooieed  to 
the  book  of  Joshua,  and  to  show  that  Joshua  is  not  the  author  of 
that  book,  and  that  it  is  anonymous  and  without  authority.  The 
evidence  I  shall  produce  is  contained  in  the  book  itself;  I  will 
not  go  out  of  the  Bible  for  proof  against  the  supposed  authentici- 
ty of  the  Bible.     False  testimony  is  always  good  against  itself. 


84  THE    AGE    OF    REASOIT.  [PART  II. 

Joshua,  according  to  the  first  chapter  of  Joshua,  was  '.he  imme- 
diate successor  of  Moses  ;  he  was,  moreover,  a  mihtary  nian,which 
Moses  was  not,  and  he  continued  as  chief  of  the  people  of  Israel 
25  years  ;  that  is,  from  the  time  that  Moses  died,  which,  according 
to  the  Biole  chronology,  was  1451  years  before  Christ,  until  1426 
years  before  Christ,  when,  according  to  the  same  chronology 
Joshua  died.  If,  therefore,  we  find  in  this  book,  said  to  have  been 
written  by  Joshua,  reference  to  facts  done  after  the  death  of  Josh- 
ua, it  is  evidence  that  Joshua  could  not  be  the  author  ;  and  also 
that  the  book  could  not  have  been  written  till  after  the  time  of  the 
latest  fact  which  it  records.  As  to  the  character  of  the  book,  it  is 
horrid  ;  it  is  a  mihtary  history  of  rapine  and  murder,  as  savage 
and  brutal  as  those  recorded  of  his  predecessor  in  villany  and 
hypocrisy,  Moses  ;  and  the  blasphemy  consists,  as  in  the  former 
books,  in  ascribing  those  deeds  to  the  order  of  the  Almighty. 

In  the  first  place,  the  book  of  Joshua,  as  is  the  case  in  the  pre- 
ceding books,  is  written  in  the  third  person  ;  it  is  the  historian  of 
Joshua  that  speaks,  for  it  would  have  been  absurd  and  vain-glorious 
that  Joshua  should  say  of  himself,  as  is  said  of  him  in  the  last 
verse  of  the  sixth  chapter,  that  "  /12s  fame  was  noised  throughout 
all  the  country."     I  now  come  more  immediately  to  the  proof. 

In  the  24th  chapter,  ver.  31,  it  is  said,  "  that  Israel  served  the 
Lord  all  the  days  of  Joshua,  and  all  the  days  of  the  elders  that  over- 
lived Joshua."  Now,  in  the  name  of  common  sense,  can  it  be  Josh- 
ua that  relates  what  people  had  done  after  he  was  dead  ?  This  ac- 
count must  not  only  have  been  written  by  son>e  historian  that 
lived  after  Joshua,  but  that  lived  also  after  the  elders  that  out-lived 
Joshua. 

There  are  several  passages  of  a  general  meaning  with  respect 
to  time,  scattered  throughout  the  book  of  Joshua,  that  carries  the 
time  in  which  the  book  was  written  to  a  distance  from  the  time  of 
Joshua,  but  without  marking  by  exclusion  any  particular  time,  as 
in  the  passage  above  quoted.  In  that  passage,  the  time  that  in- 
tervened between  the  death  of  Joshua  and  the  death  of  the  elders 
is  excluded  descriptively  and  absolutely,  and  the  evidence  sub- 
stantiates that  the  book  could  not  have  been  written  till  after  the 
death  of  the  last. 

But  though  the  passages  to  which  I  allude,  and  which  I  am  going 
to  quote,  do  not  designate  any  particular  time  by  exclusion,  they 
imply  a  time  far  more  distant  from  the  days  of  Joshua,  thau  is 


PART  II.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  85 

contained  between  the  death  of  Joshua  and  the  death  of  the  elders. 
— Such  is  the  passage,  chap.  x.  ver.  14  ;  where,  after  giving  an 
account  thaf.  the  sun  stood  still  upon  Gibeon,  and  the  moon  in  the 
valley  of  Aialon,  at  the  command  of  Joshua,  (a  tale  only  fit  to 
amuse  children)  the  passage  says,  ♦*  And  there  was  no  day  like 
that,  before  it,  nor  after  it,  that  the  Lord  hearkened  to  the  voice  of 
a  man." 

This  tale  of  the  sun  standing  still  upon  Mount  Gibeon,  and  the 
moon  in  the  valley  of  Ajalon,  is  one  of  those  fables  that  detects  itself. 
Such  a  circumstance  could  not  have  happened  without  being  known 
all  over  the  world.  One  half  would  have  wondered  why  the  sun 
did  not  rise,  and  the  other  why  it  did  not  set ;  and  the  tradition  of 
it  would  be  universal,  whereas  there  is  not  a  nation  in  the  world 
that  knows  any  thing  about  it.  But  why  must  the  moon  stand 
still  1  What  occasion  could  there  be  for  moon-light  in  the  day- 
time, and  that  too  while  the  sun  shined  1  Asa  poetical  figure,  the 
whole  is  well  enough  ;  it  is  akin  to  that  in  the  song  of  Deborah 
and  Baruk,  The  stars  m  their  courses  fought  against  Sisera  ;  but 
it  is  inferior  to  the  figurative  declaration  of  Mahomet,  to  the  per- 
sons who  came  to  expostulate  with  him  on  his  going  on,  Wert 
thou,  said  he,  to  come  to  me  with  the  sun  in  thy  right  hand  and  the 
moon  in  thy  left,  it  should  not  alter  my  career.  For  Joshua  to 
have  exceeded  Mahomet,  he  should  have  put  the  sun  and  moon 
one  in  each  pocket,  and  carried  them  as  Guy  Faux  carried  his 
dark  lanthorn,  and  taken  them  out  to  shine  as  he  might  happen  to 
want  them. 

The  sublime  and  the  ridiculous  are  often  so  nearly  related  that 
it  is  difficult  to  class  them  separately.  One  step  above  the  sub- 
lime makes  the  ridiculous,  and  one  step  above  the  ridiculous  makes 
the  sublime  again  ;  the  account,  however,  abstracted  from  the 
poetical  fancy,  shows  the  ignorance  of  Joshua,  for  he  should  have 
commanded  the  earth  to  have  stood  still. 

The  time  implied  by  the  expression  after  it,  that  is,  after  that 
day,  being  put  in  comparison  with  all  the  time  that  passed  before  it, 
must,  in  order  to  give  any  expressive  signification  to  the  passage, 
mean  a  great  length  of  time  : — for  example,  it  would  have  been 
ridiculous  to  have  said  so  the  next  day,  or  the  next  week,  or  the 
next  month,  or  the  next  year  ;  to  give,  therefore,  meaning  to  the 
passage,  comparative  with  the  wonder  it  relates,  and  the  prior  time 
't  alludes  to,  it  must  mean  centuries  of  years  ;  less,  however  thao 


86  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART  II. 

one  would  be  trifling,  and  less  than  two  would  be  barely  admis- 
sible. 

A  distant,  but  general  time,  is  also  expressed  in  the  8th  chap- 
ter;  where,  after  giving  an  account  of  the  taking  the  city  of  Ai,  it 
is  said,  ver.  28th,  "  And  Joshua  burned  Ai,  and  made  it  an  heap 
for  ever,  a  desolation  unto  this  day ;"  and  again,  ver.  29,  where, 
speaking  of  the  king  of  Ai,  whom  Joshua  had  hanged,  and  buried  at 
the  entering  of  the  gate,  it  is  said,  "  And  he  raised  thereon  a  great 
heap  of  stones,  which  remaineth  unto  this  day,"  that  is,  unto  the 
day  or  time  in  which  the  writer  of  the  book  of  Joshua  lived.  And 
again,  in  the  10th  chapter,  where,  after  speaking  of  the  five  kings 
whom  Joshua  had  hanged  on  five  trees,  and  then  thrown  in  a 
cave,  it  is  said,  "  And  he  laid  great  stones  on  the  cave's  mouth, 
which  remain  unto  this  very  day." 

In  enumerating  the  several  exploits  of  Joshua,  and  of  the  tribes, 
and  of  the  places  which  they  conquered  or  attempted,  it  is  said, 
c.  XV.  ver.  63,  "  As  for  the  Jebusites,  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem, 
the  children  of  Judah  could  not  drive  them  out ;  but  the  Jebu- 
sites dwell  with  the  children  of  Judah  at  Jo'usalem  unto  this  dayy 
The  question  upon  this  passage  is,  at  what  time  did  the  Jebusites 
and  the  children  of  Judah  dwell  together  at  Jerusalem  1  As 
this  matter  occurs  again  in  the  first  chapter  of  Judges,  I  shall 
reserve  my  observations  till  I  come  to  that  part. 

Having  thus  shown  from  the  book  of  Joshua  itself,  without 
any  auxiliary  evidence  whatever,  that  Joshua  is  not  the  author 
of  that  book,  and  that  it  is  anonymous,  and  consequently  with- 
out authority.  I  proceed,  as  before-mentioned,  to  the  book  of 
Judges. 

The  book  of  Judges  is  anonymous  on  the  face  of  it ;  and,  there- 
fore, even  the  pretence  is  wanting  to  call  it  the  word  of  God  ; 
it  has  not  so  much  as  a  nominal  voucher  ;  it  is  altogether 
fatherless. 

This  book  begins  with  the  same  expression  as  the  book  of 
Joshua.  That  of  Joshua  begins,  chap.  i.  ver  1,  JVbto  after  the 
death  of  Mioses,  ^-c.  and  this  of  Judges  begins,  JVoio  after  the 
death  of  Joshua,  ^-c.  This,  and  the  similarity  of  style  between  the 
two  books,  indicate  that  they  are  the  work  of  the  same  author,  but 
who  he  was,  is  altogether  unknown  :  the  only  point  that  the  book 
proves  is,  that  the  author  lived  long  after  the  time  of  Joshua  ;  for 
though  it  begins  as  if  it  followrd  immediately  after  his  death,  the 


PART  II.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  67 

second  chapter  is  an  epitome  or  abstract  of  the  whole  book 
which,  according  to  the  Bible  chronology,  extends  its  history 
through  a  space  of  306  years  ;  that  is,  from  the  death  of  Joshua, 
1426  years  before  Christ,  to  the  death  of  Sampson,  1120  yeara 
before  Chnst,  and  only  25  years  before  Saul  went  to  seek  his 
fafher^s  a«*;s,  and  ivas  made  king.  But  there  is  good  reason 
to  believe,  that  it  was  not  written  till  the  time  of  David,  at 
least,  and  that  the  book  of  Joshua  was  not  written  before  the  same 
time. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  Judges,  the  writer,  after  announcing  the 
death  of  Joshua,  proceeds  to  tell  what  happened  between  the  chil- 
dren of  Judah  and  the  native  inhabitants  of  the  land  of  Canaan. 
In  this  statement,  the  writer,  having  abruptly  mentioned  Jerusa- 
lem in  the  7th  verse,  says  immediately  after,  in  the  8th  verse,  by 
way  of  explanation,  •'  Now  the  children  of  Judah  had  fought 
against  Jerusalem,  and  taken  it ;"  consequently  this  book  could 
not  have  been  written  before  Jerusalem  had  been  taken.  The 
reader  will  recollect  the  quotation  I  have  just  before  made  from 
the  15th  chapter  of  Joshua,  ver.  63,  where  it  is  said,  that  the  Jehu- 
sites  dwell  with  the  children  of  Judah  at  Jerusalem  at  this  day  ; 
meaning  the  time  when  the  book  of  Joshua  was  written. 

The  evidence  I  have  already  produced,  to  prove  that  the  books 
I  have  hitherto  treated  of  were  not  written  by  the  persons  to  whom 
they  are  ascribed,  nor  till  many  years  after  their  death,  if  such  per- 
sons ever  lived,  is  already  so  abundant,  that  I  can  afford  to  admit 
this  passage  with  less  weight  than  I  am  entitled  to  draw  from  it. 
For  the  case  is,  that  so  far  as  the  Bible  can  be  credited  as  an 
history,  the  city  of  Jerusalem  was  not  taken  till  the  time  of  David; 
and,  consequently,  that  the  books  of  Joshua,  and  of  Judges,  were 
not  written  till  after  the  commencement  of  the  reign  of  David, 
which  was  370  years  after  the  death  of  Joshua. 

The  name  of  the  city,  that  was  afterwards  called  Jerusalem, 
was  originally  Jebus  or  Jebusi,  and  was  the  capital  of  the  Jebu- 
sites.  The  account  of  David's  taking  this  city  is  given  in  2 
Samuel,  chap.  v.  ver.  4,  &c.;  also  in  1  chron.  chap.  xiv.  ver.  4, 
&c.  There  is  no  mention  in  any  part  of  the  Bible  that  it  was 
ever  taken  before,  nor  any  account  that  favours  such  an  opinion. 
It  is  not  said,  either  in  Samuel  or  in  Chronicles,  that  they  utterly 
destroyed  men,  women,  and  childreyi ;  that  they  left  not  a  soul  to 
breathe,  as  is  said  of  their  other  conquests  ;  and  the  silence  here 


feS  THE    AGE    OF   REASON.  [PART  11. 

observed  implies  that  it  was  taken  by  capitulation,  and  that  the 
Jebusites,  the  native  inhabitants,  continued  to  live  in  the  place 
after  it  was  taken.  The  account,  therefore,  given  in  Joshua,  that 
the  Jebusites  dwell  with  the  children  of  Judah  at  Jerusalem  at  this 
day,  corresponds  to  no  other  time  than  after  the  taking  the  city  by 
David. 

Having  now  shown  that  every  book  in  the  Bible,  from  Genesis 
to  Judges,  is  without  authenticity,  I  come  to  the  book  of  Ruth,  an 
idle,  bungling  story,  foolishly  told,  nobody  knows  by  whom,  about 
a  strolling  country  girl  creeping  slyly  to  bed  to  her  cousin  Boaz. 
Pretty  stuff  indeed  to  be  called  the  word  of  God  !  It  is,  however, 
one  of  the  best  books  in  the  Bible,  for  it  is  free  from  murder  and 
rapine. 

I  come  next  to  the  two  books  of  Samuel,  and  to  show  that  those 
books  were  not  written  by  Samuel,  nor  till  a  great  length  of  time 
after  the  death  of  Samuel  :  and  that  they  are,  like  all  the  former 
books,  anonymous  and  without  authority. 

To  be  convinced  that  these  books  have  been  written  much  later 
than  the  time  of  Samuel,  and,  consequently,  not  by  him,  it  is  only 
necessaiy  to  read  the  account  which  the  writer  gives  of  Saul  going 
to  seek  his  father's  asses,  and  of  his  interview  with  Samuel,  of 
whom  Saul  went  to  inquire  about  those  lost  asses,  as  foolish  people 
now-a-days  go  to  a  conjuror  to  inquire  after  lost  things. 

The  writer,  in  relating  this  story  of  Saul,  Samuel,  and  the  asses, 
does  not  tell  it  as  a  thing  that  had  just  then  happened,  but  as  an 
ancient  story  in  the  time  this  writer  lived;  for  he  tells  it  in  the 
language  or  terms  used  at  the  time  that  Samuel  lived,  which 
obliges  the  writer  to  explain  the  story  in  the  terms  or  language 
used  in  the  time  the  writer  lived. 

Samuel,  in  the  account  given  of  him,  in  the  first  of  those  books, 
chap.  ix.  is  called  the  seer;  and  it  is  by  this  term  that  Saul  in- 
quires after  him,  ver.  11,  "And  as  they  (Saul  and  his  servant) 
went  up  the  hill  to  the  city,  they  found  young  maidens  going  out 
to  draw  water  ;  and  they  said  unto  them,  7s  the  seer  here .?"  Saul 
then  went  according  to  the  direction  of  these  maidens,  and  met 
Samuel  without  knowing  him,  and  said  unto  him,  ver.  18,  "  Tell 
me,  I  pray  thee,  where  the  seer''s  house  is?  and  Samuel  answered 
Saul,  and  said,  I  am  the  seer." 

As  the  writer  of  the  book  of  Samuel  relates  these  questions  and 
answers,  in  the  language  or  manner  of  speaking  used  in  the  time 


fART    II.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  69 

they  are  said  to  have  been  spoken  ;  and  as  that  manner  of  speak- 
ing was  out  of  use  when  this  author  wrote,  he  found  it  necessary, 
in  order  to  make  the  story  understood,  to  explain  the  terms  in 
which  these  questions  and  answers  are  spoken  ;  and  he  does  this 
m  the  9th  verse,  where  he  says,  "  before-time,  in  Israel,  when  a 
man  went  to  inquire  of  God,  thus  he  spake.  Come,  let  us  go  to 
the  seer ;  for  he  that  is  now  called  a  prophet,  was  before-time 
called  a  seer."  This  proves,  as  I  have  before  said,  that  this  story 
of  Saul,  Samuel,  and  the  asses,  was  an  ancient  story  at  the  time 
the  book  of  Samuel  was  written,  and  consequently  that  Samuel 
did  not  write  it,  and  that  that  book  is  without  authenticity. 

But  if  we  go  further  into  those  books,  the  evidence  is  still  more 
positive  that  Samuel  is  not  the  writer  of  them  ;  for  they  relate 
things  that  did  not  happen  till  several  years  after  the  death  of 
Samuel.  Samuel  died  before  Saul ;  for  the  1st  Samuel,  chap, 
xxviii.  tells,  that  Saul  and  the  witch  of  Endor  conjured  Samuel  up 
after  he  was  dead  ;  yet  the  history  of  the  matters  contained  in 
those  books  is  extended  through  the  remaining  part  of  Saul's  life, 
and  to  the  latter  end  of  the  life  of  David,  who  succeeded  Saul. 
The  account  of  the  death  and  burial  of  Samuel  (a  thing  which  he 
could  not  write  himself)  is  related  in  the  25th  chapter  of  the  first 
book  of  Samuel ;  and  the  chronology  affixed  to  this  chapter  makes 
this  to  be  1060  years  before  Christ;  yet  the  history  of  this  first 
book  is  brought  down  to  1056  years  before  Christ  ;  that  is,  to 
the  death  of  Saul,  which  was  not  till  four  years  after  the  death  of 
Samuel. 

The  second  book  of  Samuel  begins  with  an  account  of  things 
that  did  not  happen  till  four  years  after  Samuel  was  dead  ;  for  it 
begins  with  the  reign  of  David,  who  succeeded  Saul,  and  it  goes 
on  to  the  end  of  David's  reign,  which  was  forty-three  years  after 
the  death  of  Samuel ;  and,  therefore,  the  books  are  in  themselves 
positive  evidence  that  they  were  not  written  by  Samuel. 

I  have  now  gone  through  all  the  books  in  the  first  part  of  the 
Bible,  to  which  the  names  of  persons  are  affixed,  as  being  the 
authors  of  those  books,  and  which  the  church,  styling  itself  the 
Christian  church,  have  imposed  upon  the  world  as  the  writings  of 
Moses,  Joshua,  and  Samuel ;  and  I  have  detected  and  proved  the 
falsehood  of  this  imposition.  And  now,  ye  priests,  of  every  des- 
cription, who  have  preached  and  written  against  the  former  part 
of  the  >Bge  of  Reason,  what  have  ye  to  say  1  "Will  ye,  with  all 
12 


90  THE    ACE    OF    KEASGN.  fPART    11. 

this  mass  of  evidence  against  you,  and  staring  you  in  the  face, 
still  have  the  assurance  to  march  into  your  pulpits,  and  continue 
to  impose  these  books  on  your  congregations,  as  the  works  of 
inspired  penmen,  and  the  word  of  God,  when  it  i-s  as  evident  as  de- 
monstration can  make  truth  appear,  that  the  persons  who,  ye  say, 
are  the  authors,  are  not  the  authors,  and  that  ye  know  not  who  the 
authors  are.  What  shadow  of  pretence  have  ye  now  to  produce, 
for  continuing  the  blasphemous  fraud  ?  What  have  ye  still  to 
offer  against  the  pure  and  moral  religion  of  Deism,  in  support  of 
your  system  of  falsehood,  idolatry,  and  pretended  revelation  ?  Had 
the  cruel  and  murderous  orders,  with  which  the  Bible  is  filled, 
and  the  numberless  torturing  executions  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  in  consequence  of  those  orders,  been  ascribed  to  some 
friend,  whose  memory  you  revered,  you  Avould  have  glowed  with 
satisfaction  at  detecting  the  falsehood  of  the  charge,  and  gloried 
in  defending  his  injured  fame.  It  is  because  ye  are  sunk  in  the 
cruelty  of  superstition,  or  feel  no  interest  in  the  honour  of  your 
Creator,  that  ye  listen  to  the  horrid  tales  of  the  Bible,  or  hear  them 
with  callous  indifference.  The  evidence  I  have  produced,  and 
shall  still  produce  in  the  course  of  this  work,  to  prove  that  the 
Bible  is  without  authority,  will,  whilst  it  wounds  the  stubbornness 
of  a  priest,  relieve  and  tranquillize  the  minds  of  millions  ;  it  will 
free  them  from  all  those  hard  thoughts  of  the  Almighty  which 
priest-craft  and  the  Bible  had  infused  into  their  minds,  and  which 
stood  in  everlasting  opposition  to  all  their  ideas  of  his  moral 
justice  and  benevolence. 

I  come  now  to  the  two  books  of  Kings,  and  the  two  books  of 
Chronicles.  Those  books  are  altogether  historical,  and  are  chief- 
ly confined  to  the  lives  and  actions  of  the  Jewish  kings,  who  in 
general  were  a  parcel  of  rascals  ;  but  these  are  matters  with  which 
we  have  no  more  concern,  than  we  have  with  the  Roman  em- 
perors, or  Homer's  account  of  the  Trojan  war.  Besides  which, 
as  those  works  are  anonymous,  and  as  we  know  nothing  of  the 
writer,  or  of  his  character,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  know  what 
degree  of  credit  to  give  to  the  matters  related  therein.  Like  all 
other  ancient  histories,  they  appear  to  be  a  jumble  of  fable  and 
of  fact,  and  of  probable  and  of  improbable  things ;  but  which, 
distance  of  time  and  place,  and  change  of  circumstances  in  the 
world,  have  rendered  obsolete  and  uninteresting. 


PART  II.]  THE    AGE    OF    HEASON.  9i 

The  chief  use  I  shall  make  of  those  books,  will  be  that  of  com- 
paring them  with  each  other,  and  with  other  parts  of  the  Bible,  to 
show  the  confusion,  contradiction,  and  cruelty,  in  this  pretended 
word  of  God. 

The  first  book  of  Kings  begins  with  the  reign  of  Solomon, 
which  according  to  the  Bible  Chronology,  was  1015  years  before 
Christ ;  and  the  second  book  ends  58S  years  before  Christ,  being 
a  little  after  the  reign  of  Zedekiah,  whom  Nebuchadnezzar,  after 
taking  Jerusalem,  and  conquering  the  Jews,  carried  captive  to 
Babylon.     The  two  books  include  a  space  of  427  years. 

The  two  book  of  Chronicles  are  a  history  of  the  same  times, 
and  in  general  of  the  same  persons,  by  another  author  ;  for  it 
would  be  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  same  author  wrote  the  his- 
tory twice  over.  The  first  book  of  Chronicles  (after  giving  the 
genealogy  from  Adam  to  Saul,  which  takes  up  the  first  nine  chap- 
ters) begins  with  the  reign  of  David  ;  and  the  last  book  ends  as 
in  the  last  book  of  Kings,  soon  after  the  reign  of  Zedekiah,  about 
688  years  before  Christ.  The  two  last  verses  of  the  last  chapter 
bring  the  history  52  years  more  forward,  that  is,  to  53G.  But 
these  verses  do  not  belong  to  the  book,  as  I  shall  show  when  1 
come  to  speak  of  the  book  of  Ezra. 

The  two  books  of  Kings,  besides  the  history  of  Saul,  David 
and  Solomon,  who  reigned  over  all  Israel,  contain  an  abstract  of 
the  lives  of  seventeen  kings  and  one  queen,  who  are  styled  kings 
of  Judah,  and  of  nineteen,  who  are  styled  kings  of  Israel ;  for 
the  Jewish  nation,  immediately  on  the  death  of  Solomon,  spli' 
into  two  parties,  who  chose  separate  kings,  and  who  carried  or 
most  rancorous  wars  against  each  other. 

Those  two  books  are  little  more  than  a  history  of  assassi- 
nations, treachery,  and  wars.  The  cruelties  that  the  Jews  had 
accustomed  themselves  to  practise  on  the  Caananites,  whose 
country  they  had  savagely  invaded  under  a  pretended  gift  front 
God,  they  afterwards  practised  as  furiously  on  each  other. 
Scarcely  half  their  kings  died  a  natural  death,  and  in  some  instances 
whole  families  were  destroyed  to  secure  possession  to  the  suc- 
cessor, who,  after  a  few  years,  and  sometimes  only  a  few  months, 
or  less,  shared  the  same  fate.  In  the  tenth  chapter  of  the  second 
book  of  Kings,  an  account  is  given  of  two  baskets  full  of  chil- 
dren's heads,  70  in  number,  being  exoosed  at  the  entrance  of  the 
city;  they  were  the  children  of  Ahab,  an  1   were  murdered  by 


32  THE    AGE    or    REASON.  [PART    11. 

the  orders  of  Jehu,  whom  Elisha,  the  pretended  man  of  God, 
had  anointed  to  be  king  over  Israel,  on  purpose  to  commit  this 
bloody  deed,  and  assassinate  his  predecessor.  And  in  the  ac- 
count of  the  reign  of  Manaham,  one  of  the  kings  of  Israel  who 
had  murdered  Shallum,  who  had  reigned  but  one  month,  it  is  said, 
Kings,  chap.  xv.  ver.  16,  that  Manaham  smote  the  city  of 
Tiphsah,  because  they  opened  not  the  city  to  him,  and  all  the 
women  that  were  therein  that  were  iinth  child  they  ripped  up. 

Could  we  permit  ourselves  to  suppose  that  the  Almighty  would 
distinguish  any  nation  of  people  by  the  name  of  his  chosen  people, 
we  must  suppose  that  people  to  have  been  an  example  to  all  the  rest 
of  the  world  of  the  purest  piety  and  humanity,  and  not  such  a  nation 
of  ruffians  and  cut-throats  as  the  ancient  Jews  were;  a  people, 
who,  corrupted  by,  and  copying  after  such  monsters  and  imposters 
as  Moses  and  Aaron,  Joshua,  Samuel,  and  David,  had  distinguish- 
ed themselves  above  all  others,  on  the  face  of  the  known  earth, 
for  barbarity  and  wickedness.  If  we  will  not  stubbornly  shut 
our  eyes,  and  steel  our  hearts,  it  is  impossible  not  to  see,  in 
spite  of  all  that  long-established  superstition  imposes  upon  the 
mind,  that  that  flattering  appellation  of  his  chosen  people  is  no 
other  than  a  lie  the  priests  and  leaders  of  the  Jews  had  invent- 
ed, to  cover  the  baseness  of  their  own  characters  ;  and  which 
Christian  priests,  sometimes  as  corrupt,  and  often  as  cruel, 
have  professed  to  believe. 

The  two  books  of  Chronicles  are  a  repetition  of  the  same 
crimes  ;  but  the  history  is  broken  in  several  places,  by  the  author 
leaving  out  the  reign  of  some  of  their  kings  ;  and  in  this,  as  well 
as  in  that  of  Kings,  there  is  such  a  frequent  transition  from  kings 
of  Judah  to  kings  of  Israel,  and  from  kings  of  Israel  to  kings  of 
Judah,  that  the  narrative  is  obscure  in  the  reading.  In  the  same 
book  the  history  sometimes  contradicts  itself;  for  example,  in  the 
second  book  of  Kings,  chap.  i.  ver.  8,  we  are  told,  but  in  rather 
ambiguous  terms,  that  after  the  death  of  Ahaziah,  king  of  Israel. 
Jehoram,  or  Joram  (who  was  of  the  house  of  Ahab)  reigned  in 
his  stead  in  the  second  year  of  Jehoram,  or  Joram,  son  of  Je- 
hoshaphat  king  of  Judah ;  and  in  chap.  viii.  ver.  16,  of  the  same 
book,  it  is  said,  and  in  the  fifth  year  of  Joram,  the  son  of  Ahab, 
king  of  Israel,  Jehoshaphat  being  then  king  of  Judah,  began  to 
reign  •  that  is,  one  chapter  says  Joram  of  Judah  began  to 
leign  in  the  second  year  of  Joram  of  Israel ;  and  the  other  chap- 


PART   II.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  93 

ter  says,  that  Joram  of  Israel  began  to  reign  in  the  fifth  year  of 
Joram  of  Judah. 

Several  of  the  most  extraordinary  matters  related  in  one  history, 
as  having  happened  during  the  reign  of  such  and  such  of  their  kings 
are  not  to  be  found  in  the  other,  in  relating  the  reign  of  the  same 
king ;  for  example,  the  two  first  rival  kings,  after  the  death  of 
Solomon,  were  Rehoboam  and  Jeroboam  ;  and  in  1  Kings,  chap 
xii.  and  xiii.  an  account  is  given  of  Jeroboam  making  an  offering 
of  burnt  incense,  and  that  a  man  who  is  there  called  a  man  of  God, 
cried  out  against  the  altar,  chap.  xiii.  ver.  2,  "  0  altar  !  altar  ! 
thus  saith  the  Lord  ;  Behold,  a  child  shall  be  born  to  the  house  of 
David,  Josiah  by  name,  and  upon  thee  shall  he  offer  the  priests  of 
the  high  places,  and  burn  incense  upon  thee,  and  men's  bones  shall 
be  burnt  upon  thee." — Ver.  3,  "  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  king 
Jeroboam  heard  the  saying  of  the  man  of  God,  which  had  cried 
against  the  altar  in  Bethel,  that  he  put  forth  his  hand  from  the  altar, 
saying,  Lay  hold  on  him  ;  and  his  hand  which  he  put  out  against 
him  dried  up,  so  that  he  could  not  pull  it  again  to  him.^^ 

One  would  think  that  such  an  extraordinary  case  as  this,  (which 
is  spoken  of  as  a  judgment,)  happening  to  the  chief  of  one  of  the 
parties,  and  that  at  the  first  moment  of  the  separation  of  the  Israel- 
ites into  two  nations,  would  if  it  hud  been  true,  have  been  recorded 
in  both  histories.  But  though  men  in  latter  time  have  believed  all 
that  the  prophets  have  said  unto  them,  it  does  not  appear  these  pro- 
phets or  historians  believed  each  other,  they  knew  each  other  too 
well. 

A  long  account  also  is  given  in  Kings  about  Elijah.  It  runs 
through  several  chapters,  and  concludes  with  telling,  2  Kmgs, 
chap.  ii.  ver.  11,  "  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  they  (Elijah  and  Eli- 
sha)  still  went  on,  and  talked,  that  behold,  there  appeared  a  chariot 
of  fire  and  horses  of  fire,  and  parted  them  both  asunder,  and  Elijah 
went  up  by  a  whirlwind  into  heaven.^^  Hum  !  this  the  author  of 
Chronicles,  miraculous  as  the  story  is,  makes  no  mention  oi,  though 
ne  mentions  Elijah  by  name  ;  neither  does  he  say  any  thing  of  the 
story  related  in  the  second  chapter  of  the  same  book  of  Kings, 
of  a  parcel  of  children  calling  Elisha  bald  head,  bald  head  ;  and 
thatthiss  mail  of  God,  ver.24,  "  turned  back,  and  looked  upon  them, 
and  cursed  them  in  the  yiame  of  the  Lord  ;  and  there  came  forth 
two  she  bears  out  of  the  wood,  and  tore  forty  and  two  children  of 
them."     He  also  passes  over  in  silence  the  story  told,  2  Kings, 


94  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART    II 

chap.  xiii.  that  when  they  were  burying  a  man  in  the  sepulchre, 
where  Elisha  had  been  buried,  it  happened  that  the  dead  man,  as 
they  were  letting  him  down,  (ver.  21,)  "  touched  the  bones  of  Eli- 
sha, and  he  (the  dead  man)  revived,  and  stood  upon  hisfeeV  The 
story  does  not  tell  us  whether  they  buried  the  man  notwithstand- 
mg  he  revived  and  stood  upon  his  feet,  or  drew  him  up  again. 
Upon  all  these  stones,  the  writer  of  Chronicles  is  as  silent  as  any 
writer  of  the  present  day,  who  did  not  choose  to  be  accused  of 
lying,  or  at  least  of  romancing,  would  be  about  stories  of  the  same 
kind. 

But,  however  thbse  two  historians  may  differ  from  each  other, 
with  respect  to  the  tales  related  by  either,  they  are  silent  alike 
with  respect  to  those  men  styled  prophets,  whose  writings  fill  up 
the  latter  part  of  the  Bible.  Isaiah,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  He- 
zekiah,  is  mentioned  in  Kings,  and  again  in  Chronicles,  when  these 
historians  are  speaking  of  that  reign  ;  but  except  in  one  or  two 
instances  at  most,  and  those  very  slightly,  none  of  the  rest  are  so 
much  as  spoken  of,  or  even  hinted  at ;  though,  according  to  the 
Bible  chronology,  they  lived  within  the  time  those  histories  were 
written  ;  some  of  them  long  before.  If  those  prophets,  as  they 
are  called,  were  men  of  such  importance  in  their  day,  as  the  com- 
pilers of  the  Bible,  and  priests,  and  commentators  have  since 
represented  them  to  be,  how  can  it  be  accounted  for,  that  not 
one  of  these  histories  should  say  any  thing  about  them  ? 

The  history  in  the  books  of  Kings  and  of  Chronicles  is  brought 
forward,  as  I  have  already  said,  to  the  year  588  before  Christ ;  it 
will  therefore  be  proper  to  examine,  which  of  these  prophets  lived 
before  that  period. 

Here  follows  a  table  of  all  the  prophets,  with  the  times  in  which 
they  lived  before  Christ,  according  to  the  Chronology  affixed  to 
the  first  chapter  of  each  of  the  books  of  the  prophets ;  and  also 
of  the  number  of  years  they  lived  before  the  books  of  Kings  and 
Chronicles  were  written. 


FART    II.] 


THE    AGE    OF    REASON. 


95 


Table  of  the  Prophets,  with  the  time  in  ichich  they  lived  before 
Carist,  and  also  before  the  books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles 
were  written. 


Names 
Isaiah 

Years 

before 

Christ. 

760 

Yrs.  before 

Kings  and 

Chronicles. 

172 

Observations. 
mentioned. 

Jeremiah   - 

- 

629 

41 

(  mentioned    only 
\  the  last  c.  of  Chr 

Ezekiel      - 

. 

595 

7 

not  mentioned. 

Daniel 

. 

607 

19 

not  mentioned. 

Hosea 

. 

785 

97 

not  mentioned. 

Joel 

. 

800 

212 

not  mentioned. 

Amos 

. 

789 

199 

not  mentioned. 

Obadiah     - 

. 

789 

199 

not  mentioned 

Jonah 

. 

862 

274 

see  the  note.* 

Micah 

_ 

750 

162 

not  mentioned. 

Nahum 

. 

713 

125 

not  mentioned. 

Habakkuk- 

. 

620 

38 

not  mentioned. 

Zephaniah- 

_ 

630 

42 

not  mentioned. 

Haggai      \ 
Zachariah  > 
Malachi     j 

after  the 
year  5S8 

1 

This  table  is  either  not  very  honourable  for  the  Bible  historians, 
or  not  very  honorable  for  the  Bible  prophets  ;  and  I  leave  to 
priests,  and  commentators,  who  are  very  learned  in  little  things, 
to  settle  the  point  of  etiquette  between  the  two  ;  and  to  assign  a 
reason,  why  the  authors  of  Kings  and  Chronicles  have  treated 
those  prophets,  whom  in  the  former  part  of  the  ^ge  of  Reason,  I 
have  considered  as  poets,  with  as  much  degrading  silence  as  anv 
historian  of  the  present  day  would  treat  Peter  Pindar. 

I  have  one  observation  more  to  make  on  the  book  of  Chronicles  ; 
after  which  I  shall  pass  on  to  review  the  remaining  books  of  the 
Bible. 

In  my  observations  on  the  book  of  Genesis,  I  have  quoted  a 
passage  from  the  36th  chapter,  verse  31,  which  evidently  refers  to 
a  time,  after  that  kings  began  to  reign  over  the  children  of  Israel ; 
and  I  have  shown  that  as  this  verse  is  verbatim  the  same  as  in 
Chronicles  chap.  i.  verse  43,  where  it  stands  consistently  with  the 

*  In  2  Kings,  chap.  xiv.  ver.  25,  the  name  of  Jonah  is  mentioned  on  account 
of  the  restoration  of  a  tract  of  land  by  Jeroboam  ;  but  nothing  further  is  said 
of  him,  nor  is  any  allusion  made  to  the  book  of  Jonali,  nor  to  his  expedition 
*o  Ninevah,  nor  to  his  encounter  with  the  whale. 


96  THE    AGE    OF    REASOX.  [PART    tl. 

order  of  history,  which  in  Genesis  it  does  not,  that  the  verse  in 
Genesis,  and  a  great  part  of  the  36th  chapter,  have  been  taken 
from  Chronicles ;  and  that  the  book  of  Genesis,  though  it  is 
placed  first  in  the  Bible,  and  ascribed  to  Moses,  has  been  manu- 
factured by  some  unknown  person,  after  the  book  of  Chronicles 
was  written,  which  was  not  until  at  least  eight  hundred  and  sixty 
years  after  the  time  of  Moses. 

The  evidence  I  proceed  by  to  substantiate  this  is  regular,  and 
has  in  it  but  two  stages.  First,  as  I  have  already  stated,  that  the 
passage  in  Genesis  refers  itself  for  time  to  Chronicles;  secondly, 
that  the  book  of  Chronicles,  to  which  this  passage  refers  itself,  was 
not  begun  to  be  written  until  at  least  eight  hundred  and  sixty 
years  after  the  time  of  Moses.  To  prove  this,  we  have  only  to 
look  into  the  thirteenth  verse  of  the  third  chapter  of  the  first  book 
of  Chronicles,  where  the  writer,  in  giving  the  genealogy  of  the 
descendants  of  David,  mentions  Zedekiah ;  and  it  was  in  the 
time  of  Zedekiah,  that  Nebuchadnezzar  conquered  Jerusalem, 
588  years  before  Christ,  and  consequently  more  than  860  years 
after  Moses.  Those  who  have  superstitiously  boasted  of  the 
antiquity  of  the  Bible,  and  particularly  of  the  books  ascribed  to 
Moses,  have  done  it  without  examination,  and  without  any  autho- 
rity than  that  of  one  credulous  man  telling  it  to  another  ;  for,  so 
far  as  historical  and  chronological  evidence  applies,  the  very  first 
book  in  the  Bible  is  not  so  ancient  as  the  book  of  Homer,  by  more 
than  three  hundred  years,  and  is  about  the  same  age  with  ^sop's 
Fables. 

I  am  not  contending  for  the  morality  of  Homer  ;  on  the  con- 
trary, I  think  it  a  book  of  false  glory,  tending  to  inspire  immoral 
and  mischievous  nations  of  honour  :  and  with  respect  to  ^sop, 
though  the  moral  is  in  general  just,  the  fable  is  often  cruel ;  and  the 
cruelty  of  the  fable  does  more  injury  to  the  heart,  especially  in  a 
child,  than  the  moral  does  good  to  the  judgment 

Having  now  dismissed  Kings  and  Chronicles,  I  come  to  the 
next  in  course,  the  book  of  Ezra. 

As  one  proof,  among  others,  I  shall  produce,  to  show  the  dis- 
order in  which  this  pretended  word  of  God,  the  Bible,  has  been 
put  together,  and  the  uncertainty  of  who  the  authors  were,  we 
have  only  to  look  at  the  three  first  verses  in  Ezra,  and  the  two 
last  in  Chronicles  ;  for  by  what  kind  of  cutting  and  shuffling  has 
it  been  that  the  three  first  verses  in  Ezra  should  be  the  two  last 


THE    AGE    OF    REASON. 


97 


PARI  II.] 

verses  in  Chronicles,  or  that  the  two  last  in  Chronicles  should  be 
the  three  first  in  Ezra  ?  Either  the  authors  did  not  know  their 
own  works,  or  the  compilers  did  not  know  the  authors. 


Th-ee  first  Verses  of  Ezra. 

Yer.  1.  Now  in  the  first  year 
of  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia,  that 
the  word  of  the  Lord,  by  the 
mouth  of  Jeremiah,  might  be 
fulfilled,  the  Lord  stirred  up  the 
spirit  of  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia, 
that  he  made  a  proclamation 
throughout  all  his  kingdom,  and 
put  it  also  in  writing,  saying, 

2.  Thus  saith  Cyrus,  king  of 
Persia,  The  Lord  God  of  hea- 
ven hath  given  me  all  the  king- 
doms of  the  earth  ;  and  he  hath 
charged  me  to  build  him  an 
house  at  Jerusalem,  which  is  in 
Judah. 

3.  Who  is  there  among  you 
of  all  his  people  ?  his  God  be 
with  him,  and  let  him  go  up,  to 
Jerusalem,  ivhich  is  in  Judah, 
and  build  the  house  of  the  Lord 
God  of  Israel  {he  is  the  God) 
which  is  in  Jerusalem. 

The  last  verse  in  Chronicles  is  broken  abruptly,  and  ends  in  the 

middle  of  a  phrase  with  the  word  up,  without  signifying  to  what 

place.     This  abrupt  break,  and  the  appearance  of  the  same  verses 

in  different  books,  show,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  disorder  and 

ignorance  in  which  the  Bible  has  been  put  together,  and  that  the 

compilers  of  it  had  no  authority  for  what  they  were  doing,  nor  we 

any  authority  for  believing  what  they  have  done.* 

*  I  observed,  as  I  passed  alono:,  several  broken  and  senseless  passages  in  the 
Bible,  without  thinking  them  of  consequence  enough  to  be  introduced  in  the 
body  of  the  work ;  such  as  that,  1  Samuel,  chap.  xiii.  ver.  1,  where  it  is  said, 
"Saul  reigned  one  year;  and  when  he  had  reigned  two  years  over  Israel,  Saul 
chose  him  three  thousand  men,  &c."  The  first  part  of  the  verse,  that  Saul 
reigned  one  year  has  no  sense,  since  it  does  not  tell  us  what  Saul  did,  nor  say 
any  thing  of  what  happened  at  the  end  of  that  one  year  ;  and  it  is,  besides,, 
mere  absurdity  to  say  he  reigned  one  year,  when  the  very  next  phreise  say> 
13 


Two  last  Verses  of  Chronicles. 
Ter.  22.  Now  in  the  first 
year  of  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia, 
that  the  word  of  the  Lord, 
spoken  by  the  mouth  of  Jere- 
miah, might  be  accomplished, 
the  Lord  stirred  up  the  spirit  of 
Cyrus,  king  of  Persia,  that  he 
made  a  proclamation  throughout 
all  his  kingdom,  and  put  it  also 
in  writing,  saying. 

23.  Thus  saith  Cyrus,  king 
of  Persia,  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  earth  hath  the  Lord  God 
of  heaven  given  me  ;  and  he 
hath  charged  me  to  build  him 
an  house  in  Jerusalem,  which  is 
in  Judah.  Who  is  there  among 
you  of  his  people?  the  Lord 
his  God  be  with  him,  and  let 
him  go  up. 


Si  THE    AOE    OF    REASON.  [PART    11. 

The  only  thing  that  has  any  appearance  of  certainty  in  the 
book  of  Ezra,  is  the  time  in  which  it  was  written,  which  was  im- 
mediately after  the  return  of  the  Jews  from  the  Babylonian  cap- 
tivity, about  536  years  before  Christ.  Ezra  (who,  according  to 
the  Jewish  commentators,  is  the  same  person  as  is  called  Esdras 
in  the  Apocrypha)  was  one  of  the  persons  who  returned,  and  who, 
it  is  probable,  wrote  the  account  of  that  affair.  Nehemiah,  whose 
book  follows  next  to  Ezra,  was  another  of  the  returned  persons  ; 
and  who,  it  is  also  probable,  wrote  the  account  of  the  same  affair, 
in  the  book  that  bears  his  name.  But  those  accounts  are  nothing 
to  us,  nor  to  any  other  persons,  unless  it  be  to  the  Jews,  as  a  part 
of  the  history  of  their  nation;  and  there  is  just  as  much  of  the 
word  of  God  in  those  books  as  there  is  in  any  of  the  histories  of 
France,  or  Rapin's  history  of  England,  or  the  history  of  any  other 
country. 

But  even  in  matters  of  historical  record,  neither  of  those  writers 
are  to  be  depended  upon.  In  the  second  chapter  of  Ezra,  the 
writer  gives  a  list  of  the  tribes  and  families,  and  of  the  precise 
number  of  souls  of  each  that  returned  from  Babylon  to  Jerusalem ; 
and  this  enrolment  of  the  persons  so  returned,  appears  to  have 
been  one  of  the  principal  objects  for  writing  the  book  ;  but  in  this 
there  is  an  error,  that  destroys  the  intention  of  the  undertaking 

he  had  reigned  two ;  for  if  he  had  reigned  two,  it  was  impossible  not  to  have 
reigned  one. 

Another  instance  occurs  in  Joshua,  chap.  v.  where  the  writer  tells  us  a  story 
of  an  angel  (for  such  the  table  of  contents  at  the  head  of  the  chapter  calls 
him,)  appearing  unto  Joshua  ;  and  the  story  ends  abruptly,  and  without  any 
conclusion.  The  story  is  as  follows  : — Ver.  13,  "  And  it  came  to  pass,  when 
Joshua  was  by  Jericho,  that  he  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  looked,  and  behold  there 
stood  a  man  over  against  him  with  his  sword  drawn  in  his  hand  ;  and  Joshua 
went  unto  him  and  said  unto  him,  Art  thou  for  us,  or  for  our  adversaries  ?" 
Verse  14,  "And  he  said,  Nay;  but  as  the  captain  of  the  hosts  of  the  Lord 
am  I  now  come.  And  .toshua  fell  on  his  face  to  the  earth,  and  did  worship 
and  said  unto  him,  What  saith  my  Lord  unto  his  servant?"  Verse  15, 
"And  the  captain  of  the  Lord's  host  said  unto  Joshua,  Lose  thy  shoe  from  off 
thy  foot ;  for  the  place  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy.  And  Joshua  did  so." 
— And  v/hat  then;  nothing,  for  here  the  story  ends,  and  the  chapter  too. 

Either  this  story  is  broken  off  in  the  middle,  or  it  is  a  story  told  by  some 
Jewish  humourist,  in  ridicule  of  Joshua's  pretended  mission  from  God  ;  and 
ttie  compilers  of  the  Bible,  not  perceiving  the  design  of  the  story,  have  told  it 
as  a  serious  matter.  As  a  story  of  humour  and  ridicule,  it  has  a  great  deal  of 
point,  for  it, pomp<-usly  introduces  an  angel  in  the  figure  of  a  man,  with  a 
drawn  sword  in  hia  hand,  before  whom  Joshua  falls  on  his  face  to  the  earth, 
and  worships,  (which  is  contrary  to  their  second  commandment ;)  and  then, 
this  most, important  embassy  from  heaven  ends,  in  telling  Joshua  to  pull  off  his 
shoe.     It  might  as  well  have  told  him  to  pull  up  his  breeches. 

It  is  certain,  however,  that  the  Jews  did  not  credit  everything  their  leaders 
told  them,  as  appears  from  the  cavalier  manner  in  which  they  speak  of  Moses, 
when  he  was  gone  into  the  mount.  "As  for  this  Moses,  say  they,  we  wot 
not  what  is  become  of  him."    "Exod.  chap.  x.  xxii.  ver.  1. 


PART    II.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  99 

The  wri'.er  b'igins  his  enrolment  in  the  following  manner : — 
chap.  ii.  ver.  3,  "  The  children  of  Parosh,  two  thousand  one  hun- 
dred seventy  and  four."  Verse  4,  "  The  children  of  Shephatiah, 
three  hundred  seventy  and  two."  And  in  this  manner  he  pro- 
ceeds through  all  the  families  ;  and  in  the  64th  verse,  he  makes  a 
total,  and  says,  the  whole  congregation  together  wns  forty  and  two 
thousand  three  hundred  and  threescore. 

But  whoever  will  take  the  trouble  of  casting  up  the  several 
particulars,  will  find  that  the  total  is  but  29,818  ;  so  that  the  error 
is  12,542.*  What  certainty  then  can  there  be  in  the  Bible  for 
any  thing  1 

Nehemiah,  in  like  manner,  gives  a  list  of  the  returned  families, 
and  of  the  number  of  each  family.  He  begins  as  in  Ezra,  by  say- 
ing, chap.  vii.  ver.  8,  "  The  children  of  Parosh,  two  thousand 
three  hundred  and  seventy-two  ;"  and  so  on  through  all  the  fami- 
lies. The  list  differs  in  several  of  the  particulars  from  that  of 
Ezra.  In  the  66th  verse,  Nehemiah  makes  a  total,  and  says,  as 
Ezra  had  said,  "  The  whole  congregation  together  was  forty  and 
two  thousand  three  hundred  and  three  score."  But  the  particu- 
lars of  this  list  make  a  total  but  of  31,089,  so  that  the  error  here  is 
11,271.  These  writers  may  do  well  enough  for  Bible-makers,  but 
not  for  any  thing  where  truth  and  exactness  is  necessary.  The 
next  book  in  course  is  the  book  of  Esther.  If  Madam  Esther 
thought  it  any  honour  to  offer  herself  as  a  kept  mistress  to  Ahasue- 
rus,  or  as  a  rival  to  Queen  Vashti,  who  had  refused  to  come  to  a 
drunken  king,  in  the  midst  of  a  drunken  company,  to  be  made  a 
show  of,  (for  the  account  says,  they  had  been  drinking  seven  days, 
and  were  merry,)  let  Esther  and  Mordecai  look  to  that,  it  is  no 
business  of  ours  ;  at  least,  it  is  none  of  mine  ;  besides  which  the 


*  Particulars  of  the  Families  from  the  second  chapter  of  Ezra. 

Bro't  forw.  11,577|  Bro't  forw.  15,783|  Bro't  forw.  19.444 


Chap.  ii. 
Verses  3 

I 

2172 

4 

372 

5 

775 

6 

2812 

7 

1254 

8 

945 

9 

760 

10 

642 

11 

623 

12 

1222 

11,577 

Ver.  13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 


2056 
454 

98 
323 
112 
223 

95 
123 

56 


15,783 


Ver.  23 
24 


128 
42 
743 
621 
122 
223 
52 
156 
1254 
320 


19,444 


Ver.  33 

725 

34 

345 

35 

3630 

36 

973 

37 

1052 

38 

1247 

39 

1017 

40 

74 

41 

128 

42 

139 

58 

392 

60 

652 

Total. 

29,818 

100  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PABT    11. 

story  has  a  great  deal  the  appearance  of  being  fabulous,  and  is  also 
anonymous.     I  pass  on  to  the  book  of  Job. 

The  book  of  Job  differs  in  character  from  all  the  books  we  have 
hitherto  passed  over.  Treachery  and  murder  make  no  part  of 
this  book  ;  it  is  the  meditations  of  a  mind  strongly  impressed  with 
the  vicissitudes  of  human  life,  and  by  turns  sinking  under,  and 
struggling  against  the  pressure.  It  is  a  highly  wrought  composi- 
tion, between  willing  submission  and  involuntary  discontent ;  and 
shows  man,  as  he  sometimes  is,  more  disposed  to  be  resigned  than 
he  is  capable  of  being.  Patience  has  but  a  small  share  in  the 
character  of  the  person  of  whom  the  book  treats  ;  on  the  contrary, 
his  grief  is  often  impetuous  ;  but  he  still  endeavours  to  keep  a 
guard  upon  it,  and  seems  determined,  in  the  midst  of  accumulat- 
ing ills,  to  impose  upon  himself  the  hard  duty  of  contentment. 

I  have  spoken  in  a  respectful  manner  of  the  book  of  Job  in  the 
former  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  but  without  knowing  at  that  time 
what  I  have  learned  since  ;  which  is,  that  from  all  the  evidence 
that  can  be  collected,  the  book  of  Job  does  not  belong  to  the 
Bible. 

I  have  seen  the  opinion  of  two  Hebrew  commentators,  Abe- 
nezra  and  Spinoza,  upon  this  subject ;  they  both  say  that  the  book 
of  Job  carries  no  internal  evidence  of  being  an  Hebrew  book  ; 
that  the  genius  of  the  composition,  and  the  drama  of  the  piece,  are 
not  Hebrew  ;  that  it  has  been  translated  from  another  language 
into  Hebrew,  and  that  the  author  of  the  book  was  a  Gentile  ;  that 
the  character  represented  under  the  name  of  Satan  (which  is  the 
first  and  only  time  this  name  is  mentioned  in  the  Bible)  does  not 
correspond  to  any  Hebrew  idea ;  and  that  the  two  convocations 
which  the  Deity  is  supposed  to  have  made  of  those,  whom  the 
poem  calls  sons  of  God,  and  the  familiarity  which  this  supposed 
Satan  is  stated  to  have  with  the  Deity,  are  in  the  same  case. 

It  may  also  be  observed,  that  the  book  shows  itself  to  be  the 
production  of  a  mind  cultivated  in  science,  which  the  Jews,  so  far 
from  being  famous  for,  were  very  ignorant  of.  The  allusions  to 
objects  of  natural  philosophy  are  frequent  and  strong,  and  are  of 
a  different  cast  to  any  thing  in  the  books  known  to  be  Hebrew. 
The  astronomical  names,  Pleiades,  Orion,  and  Arcturus,  are 
Greek,  and  not  Hebrew  names,  and  as  it  does  not  appear  from 
any  thing  that  is  to  be  found  in  the  Bible,  that  the  Jews  knew  any 
thing  of  astronomy,  or  that  they  studied  it,  they  had  no  translation 


TART    n.J  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  Wl 

of  those  names  into  their  own  language,  but  adopted  the  names  as 
they  found  them  in  the  poem. 

That  the  Jews  did  translate  the  literary  productions  of  the  Gen- 
tile nations  into  the  Hebrew  language,  and  mix  them  with  their 
own,  is  not  a  matter  of  doubt ;  the  thirty-first  chapter  of  Proverbs 
is  an  evidence  of  this  ;  it  is  there  said,  ver.  1,  Tht  xoord  of  king 
Lemuel,  the  prophecy  tohich  his  mother  taught  him.  This  verse 
stands  as  a  preface  to  the  proverbs  that  follow,  and  which  are  not 
the  proverbs  of  Solomon  but  of  Lemuel ;  and  this  Lemuel  was 
not  one  of  the  kings  of  Israel,  nor  of  Judah,  but  of  some  other 
country,  and  consequently  a  Gentile.  The  Jews,  however,  have 
adopted  his  proverbs,  and  as  they  cannot  give  any  account  who 
the  author  of  the  book  of  Job  was,  or  how  they  came  by  the  book  ; 
and  as  it  differs  in  character  from  the  Hebrew  writings,  and  stands 
totally  unconnected  with  every  other  book  and  chapter  in  the 
Bible,  before  it,  and  after  it,  it  has  all  the  circumstantial  evidence 
of  being  originally  a  book  of  the  Gentiles.* 

The  Bible-makers,  and  those  regulators  of  time,  the  Chronolo- 
gists,  appear  to  have  been  at  a  loss  where  to  place,  and  how  to 
dispose  of  the  book  of  Job  ;  for  it  contains  no  one  historical  cir- 
cumstance, nor  allusion  to  any,  that  might  serve  to  determine  its 
place  in  the  Bible.  But  it  would  not  have  answered  the  purpose 
of  these  men  to  have  informed  the  world  of  their  ignorance  ;  and, 
therefore,  they  have  affixed  it  to  the  sera  of  1520  years  before 
Christ  which  is  during  the  time  the  Israelites  were  in  Egypt,  and 
for  which  they  have  just  as  much  authority  and  no  more  than  I 
should  have  for  saying  it  was  a  thousand  years  before  that  period. 
The  probability,  however,  is,  that  it  is  older  than  any  book  in  the 

*  The  prayer  known  by  the  name  of  ^gur''s  Prayer,  in  the  30th  chapter  o( 
proverbs,  immediately  preceding  the  proverbs  of  Lemuel,  and  which  is  the 
only  sensible,  well-conceived,  and  well-expressed  prayer  in  the  Bible,  has 
much  the  appearance  of  being  a  prayer  taken  from  the  Gentiles.  The  name 
of  Agur  occurs  on  no  other  occasion  than  this;  and  he  is  introduced,  together 
with  the  prayer  ascribed  to  him,  in  the  same  manner,  and  nearly  in  the  same 
words,  that  Lemuel  and  his  proverbs  are  introduced  in  the  chapter  that  follows. 
The  first  verse  of  the  30th  chapter  says,  "  The  words  of  Agur,  the  son  of  Ja- 
keh,  even  the  prophecy  ;"  here  the  word  prophecy  is  used  with  the  same  ap- 
plication it  has  in  the  following  chapter  of  Lemuel,  unconnected  with  any 
thing  of  prediction.  The  prayer  of  Agur  is  in  the  8th  and  9th  verses,  "Remove 
far  from  mc  vanity  and  lies  ;  give  me  neither  riches  rior  poverty,  but  feed  me  with 
food  convenient  for  me;  lest  I  befall  and  deny  thee,  and  say,  IVho  is  the  Lord  ! 
or  lest  I  be  poor  and  steal,  and  take  the  name  of  my  God  in  vain."  This  has  not 
any  of  the  marks  of  being  a  Jewish  prayer,  for  the  Jews  never  prayed  but 
when  they  were  in  trouble,  and  never  for  any  thing  but  victory,  vengeance, 
and  riches. 


102  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II. 

Bible  ;  and  it  is  the  only  one  that  can  be  read  without  indignation 
or  disgust. 

We  know  nothing  of  what  the  ancient  Gentile  world  (as  it  is 
called)  was  before  the  time  of  the  Jews,  whose  practice  has  been 
to  calumniate  and  blacken  the  character  of  all  other  nations  ;  and 
it  is  from  the  Jewish  accounts  that  we  have  learned  to  call  them 
heathens.  But,  as  far  as  we  know  to  the  contrary,  they  were  a  just 
and  moral  people,  and  not  addicted,  like  the  Jews,  to  cruelty  and 
revenge,  but  of  whose  profession  of  faith  Ave  are  unacquainted.  It 
appears  to  have  been  their  custom  to  personify  both  virtue  and 
vice  by  statues  and  images,  as  is  done  now-a-days  both  by  sta- 
tuary and  by  painting  ;  but  it  does  not  follow  from  this,  that  they 
worshipped  them  any  more  than  we  do.     I  pass  on  to  the  book  of 

Psalms,  of  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  make  much  observation. 
Some  of  them  are  moral,  and  others  are  very  revengeful ;  and 
the  greater  part  relates  to  certain  local  circumstances  of  the 
Jewish  nation  at  the  time  they  were  written,  with  which  we  have 
nothing  to  do.  It  is,  however,  an  error  or  an  imposition  to  call 
them  the  Psalms  of  David  :  they  are  a  collection,  as  song-books 
are  now-a-days,  from  different  song-writers,  who  lived  at  different 
times.  The  137th  Psalm  could  not  have  been  written  till  more 
than  400  years  after  the  time  of  David,  because  it  is  written  in 
commemoration  of  an  event,  the  captivity  of  the  Jews  in  Babylon, 
which  did  not  happen  till  that  distance  of  time.  "  By  the  rivers 
of  Babylon  we  sat  doivn ;  yea,  we  ivept  when  ive  remembered  Zion. 
We  hanged  our  harps  upon  the  willows,  in  the  midst  thereof;  for 
there  they  that  carried  us  away  captive,  required  of  us  a  song, 
saying,  sing  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion."  As  a  man  would 
say  to  an  American,  or  to  a  Frenchman,  or  to  an  Englishman, 
sing  us  one  of  your  American  songs,  or  your  French  songs,  or 
your  English  songs.  This  remark  with  respect  to  the  time  this 
Psalm  was  written,  is  of  no  other  use  than  to  show  (among  others 
already  mentioned)  the  general  imposition  the  world  has  been 
under,  with  respect  to  the  authors  of  the  Bible.  No  regard  has 
been  paid  to  time,  place,  and  circumstance ;  and  the  names  ot 
persons  have  been  affixed  to  the  several  books,  which  it  was  as 
impossible  they  should  write,  as  that  a  man  should  walk  in  pro- 
cession at  his  own  funeral. 

The  Book  of  Proverbs.  These,  like  the  Psalms,  are  a  collec- 
tion, and  that  from  authors  belonging  to  other  nations  than  those 


PART  Il.J  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  103 

of  the  Jewish  nation,  as  I  have  shown  in  the  observations  upon 
the  book  of  Job  ;  besides  which,  some  of  the  proverbs  ascribed 
to  Solomon,  did  not  appear  till  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  after 
the  death  of  Solomon  ;  for  it  is  said  in  the  1st  verse  of  the  25th 
chapter,  "  These  are  also  proverbs  of  Solomon,  which  the  men 
of  Hezehiah,  king  of  Judah,  copied  out."  It  was  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  from  the  time  of  Solomon  to  the  time  of  Hezekiah. 
"When  a  man  is  famous  and  his  name  is  abroad,  he  is  made  the 
putative  father  of  things  he  never  said  or  did  ;  and  this,  most 
probably,  has  been  the  case  with  Solomon.  It  appears  to  have 
been  the  fashion  of  that  day  to  make  proverbs,  as  it  is  now  to 
make  jest-books,  and  father  them  upon  those  who  never  saw  them. 

The  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  or  the  Preacher,  is  also  ascribed  to 
Solomon,  and  that  with  much  reason,  if  not  with  truth.  It  is  writ- 
ten as  the  solitary  reflections  of  a  worn-out  debauchee,  such  as 
Solomon  was,  who  looking  back  on  scenes  he  can  no  longer  enjoy, 
cries  out,  Jill  is  vanilij!  A  great  deal  of  the  metaphor  and  of  the 
sentiment  is  obscure,  most  probably  by  translation  ;  but  enough 
is  left  to  show  they  were  strongly  pointed  in  the  original.*  From 
what  is  transmitted  to  us  of  the  character  of  Solomon,  he  was 
witty,  ostentatious,  dissolute,  and  at  last  melancholy.  He  lived 
fast,  and  died,  tired  of  the  world,  at  the  age  of  fifty-eight  years. 

Seven  hundred  wives,  and  three  hundred  concubines,  are  worse 
than  none  ;  and,  however  it  may  carry  with  it  the  appearance  of 
heightened  enjoyment,  it  defeats  all  the  felicity  of  affection,  by 
leaving  it  no  point  to  fix  upon  ;  divided  love  is  never  happy.  This 
was  the  case  with  Solomon ;  and  if  he  could  not,  with  all  his  pre- 
tensions to  wisdom,  discover  it  beforehand,  he  merited,  unpitied, 
the  mortification  he  afterwards  endured.  In  this  point  of  view, 
his  preaching  is  unnecessary,  because,  to  know  the  consequences, 
it  is  only  necessary  to  know  the  cause.  Seven  hundred  wives, 
and  three  hundred  concubines,  would  have  stood  in  place  of  the 
whole  book.  It  was  needless  after  this  to  say,  that  all  was  vanity 
and  vexation  of  spirit ;  for  it  is  impossible  to  derive  happiness 
from  the  company  of  those  whom  we  deprive  of  happiness. 

To  be  happy  in  old  age,  it  is  necessary  that  we  accustom  our- 
selves to  objects  that  can  accompany  the  mind  all  the  way  through 
life,  and  that  we  take  the  rest  as  good  in  their  day.     The  mere 

♦  Those  that  look  out  oj  the  window  shall  be  darkened,  is  an  obscure  figure 
in  translation  for  loss  of  sight. 


104  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART  11. 

man  of  pleasure  is  miserable  in  old  age ;  and  the  mere  drudge  in 
business  is  but  little  better  :  whereas,  natural  philosophy,  mathe- 
matical and  mechanical  science,  are  a  continual  source  of  tranquil 
pleasure ;  and  in  spite  of  the  gloomy  dogmas  of  priests,  and  of 
superstition,  the  study  of  those  things  is  the  study  of  the  true 
theology ;  it  teaches  man  to  know  and  to  admire  the  Creator,  for 
the  principles  of  science  are  in  the  creation,  and  are  unchange- 
able, and  of  divine  origin. 

Those  who  knew  Benjamin  Franklin  will  recollect,  that  his 
mind  was  ever  young ;  his  temper  ever  serene :  science,  that 
never  grows  grey,  was  always  his  mistress.  He  was  never  with- 
out an  object,  for  when  we  cease  to  have  an  object,  we  become 
Hke  an  invalid  in  an  hospital  Availing  for  death. 

Solomon's  Songs  are  amorous  and  foolish  enough,  but  whic. 
wrinkled  fanaticism  has  called  divine.  The  compilers  of  the 
Bible  have  placed  these  songs  after  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes  ;  and 
the  Chronologists  have  afRxed  to  them  the  sera  of  1014  years  be- 
fore Christ,  at  which  time  Solomon,  according  to  the  same  chro- 
nology, was  nineteen  years  of  age,  and  was  then  forming  his 
seraglio  of  wives  and  concubines.  The  Bible-makers  and  the 
Chronologists  should  have  managed  this  matter  a  little  better,  and 
either  have  said  nothing  about  the  time,  or  chosen  a  time  less  in- 
consistent with  the  supposed  divinity  of  those  songs  ;  for  Solomon 
was  then  in  the  honey-moon  of  one  thousand  debaucheries. 

It  should  also  have  occurred  to  them,  that  as  he  wrote,  if  he 
did  write,  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  long  after  these  songs,  and  in 
which  he  exclaims,  that  all  is  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit ;  that 
he  included  those  songs  in  that  description.  This  is  the  more 
probable,  because  he  says,  or  somebody  for  him,  Ecclesiastes, 
chap.  ii.  v.  8, "  I  got  me  men  singers,  and  icomen  singers,  (most 
probably  to  sing  those  songs,)  mid  tnusical  instrumenls  of  all 
sorts  ;  and  behold  (ver.  11,)  all  was  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit  * 
The  compilers,  however,  have  done  their  work  but  by  halves  ;  for 
as  they  have  given  us  the  songs,  they  should  have  given  us  the 
tunes,  that  we  might  sing  them. 

The  books,  called  the  books  of  the  Prophets,  fill  up  all  the 
remaining  parts  of  the  Bible  ;  they  are  sixteen  in  number,  begin- 
ning with  Isaiah,  and  ending  with  Malachi,  of  which  I. have  given 
you  a  list  in  my  observations  upon  Chronicles.  Of  these  sixteen 
prophets,  all  of  whom,  except  the  three  last,  lived  within  the  time 


TJiKT  II.]  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  105 

the  books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles  were  written  ;  two  only, 
Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  are  mentioned  in  the  history  of  those  books. 
I  shall  begin  with  those  two,  reserving  what  I  have  to  say  on  the 
general  character  of  the  men  called  prophets  to  another  part  of  the 
work. 

Whoever  will  take  the  trouble  of  reading  the  book  ascribed  to 
Isaiah,  will  find  it  one  of  the  most  wild  and  disorderly  composi- 
tions ever  put  together  ;  it  has  neither  beginning,  middle, nor  end; 
and,  except  a  short  historical  part,  and  a  few  sketches  of  history 
in  two  or  three  of  the  first  chapters,  is  one  continued  incoherent, 
bombastical  rant,  full  of  extravagant  metaphor,  without  application, 
and  destitute  of  meaning;  a  school-boy  would  scarcely  have  been 
excusable  for  writing  such  stuff;  it  is  (at  least  in  the  translation) 
that  kind  of  composition  and  false  taste,  that  is  properly  called 
prose  run  mad. 

The  historical  part  begins  at  the  36th  chapter,  and  is  continued 
to  the  end  of  the  39th  chapter.  It  relates  to  some  matters  that 
are  said  to  have  passed  during  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  king  of 
Judah,  at  which  time  Isaiah  lived.  This  fragment  of  history 
begins  and  ends  abruptly  ;  it  has  not  the  least  connection  Avith  the 
chapter  that  precedes  it,  nor  with  that  which  follows  it,  nor  with 
any  other  in  the  book.  It  is  probable  that  Isaiah  wrote  this  frag- 
ment himself,  because  he  was  an  actor  in  the  circumstances  it 
treats  of;  but,  except  this  part,  there  are  scarcely  two  chapters 
that  have  any  connection  with  each  other  ;  one  is  entitled,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  first  verse,  the  burden  of  Babylon  ;  another,  the 
burden  of  Moab  ;  another,  the  burden  of  Damascus  ;  another,  the 
burden  of  Egypt ;  another,  the  burden  of  the  Desart  of  the  Sea  ; 
another,  the  burden  of  the  Valley  of  Vision  ;  as  you  would  say, 
the  story  of  the  knight  of  the  burning  mountain,  the  story  of  Cin- 
derella, or  the  children  of  the  wood,  &c.  &c. 

I  have  already  shown,  in  the  instance  of  the  two  last  verses  of 
Chronicles,  and  the  three  first  in  Ezra,  that  the  compilers  of  the 
Bible  mixed  and  confounded  the  writings  of  different  authors  with 
each  other,  which  alone,  were  there  no  other  cause,  is  sufficient  to 
destroy  the  authenticity  of  any  compilation,  because  it  is  more 
than  presumptive  evidence  that  the  compilers  are  ignorant  who 
the  authors  were.  A  very  glaring  instance  of  this  occurs  in  the 
book  ascribed  to  Isaiah,  the  latter  part  of  the  44th  chapter,  and 
the  beginning  of  the  45th,  so  far  from  having  been  written  b/ 
U 


106  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PARt  lU 

Isaiah,  could  only  have  been  written  by  some  person  who  lived, 
at  least,  an  hundred  an  fifty  years  after  Isaiah  was  dead. 

These  chapters  are  a  compliment  to  Cyi-us,  who  permitted  the 
Jews  to  return  to  Jerusalem  from  the  Babylonian  captivity,  to 
rebuild  Jerusalem  and  the  temple,  as  is  stated  in  Ezra.  The 
last  verse  of  the  44th  chapter,  and  the  beginning  of  the  45th,  are 
in  the  following  words  :  "  That  saith  of  Cyrus,  he  is  my  shepherd, 
and  shall  perform  all  my  jyleasure;  even  saying  to  Jerusalem,  thou 
shall  be  built ;  and  to  the  temple  thy  foundations  shall  be  laid  : 
thus  saith  the  Lord  to  his  annointed,  to  Cyrus,  whose  right  hand  I 
have  holden  to  subdue  nations  before  him,  and  I  ivill  loose  the  loins 
of  kings  to  open  before  him  the  two-leaved  gates,  and  the  gates 
shall  not  be  shut;   I  will  go  before  thee,  ^-c." 

What  audacity  of  church  and  priestly  ignorance  it  is  to  impose 
this  book  upon  the  world  as  the  writing  of  Isaiah,  when  Isaian, 
according  to  their  own  chronology,  died  soon  after  the  death  of 
Hezekiah,  which  was  698  years  before  Christ ;  and  the  decree  ot 
Cyrus,  in  favour  of  the  Jews  returning  to  Jerusalem,  was,  accord- 
ing to  the  same  chronology,  536  years  before  Christ ;  which  was 
a  distance  of  time  between  the  two  of  162  years.  I  do  not  sup- 
pose that  the  compilers  of  the  Bible  made  these  books,  but  rather 
that  they  picked  up  some  loose,  anonymous  essays,  and  put  them 
together  under  the  name  of  such  authors  as  best  suited  their  pur- 
pose. They  have  encouraged  the  imposition,  which  is  next  to 
inventing  it ;  for  it  was  impossible  but  they  must  have  observed  it. 

When  we  see  the  studied  craft  of  the  scripture-makers,  in  mak- 
ing every  part  of  this  romantic  book  of  school-boy's  eloquence, 
bend  to  the  monstrous  idea  of  a  Son  of  God,  begotten  by  a  ghost 
on  the  body  of  a  virgin,  there  is  no  imposition  we  are  not  justified 
in  suspecting  them  of.  Every  phrase  and  circumstance  are 
marked  with  the  barbarous  hand  of  superstitious  torture,  and  forced 
into  meanings  it  was  impossible  they  could  have.  The  head  of 
every  chapter,  and  the  top  of  every  page,  are  blazoned  with  the 
names  of  Christ  and  the  church,  that  the  unwary  reader  might 
suck  in  the  error  before  he  began  to  read. 

Behold  a  virgin  shall  conceive,  and  bear  a  son,  Isaiah,  chap.  \ii. 
ver.  14,  has  been  interpreted  to  mean  the  person  called  Jesus 
Christ,  and  his  mother  Maiy,  and  has  been  echoed  through  Christ- 
endom for  more  than  a  thousand  years  ;  and  such  has  been  the 
rage  of  this  opinion,  that  scarcely  a  spot  in  it  but  has  been  stained 


PART  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  107 

with  blood  and  marked  with  desolation  in  consequence  of  it. 
Though  it  is  not  my  intention  to  enter  into  controversy  on  subjects 
of  this  kind,  but  to  confine  myself  to  show  that  the  Bible  is  spuri- 
ous ;  and  thus,  by  taking  away  the  foundation,  to  overthrow  at 
once  the  whole  structure  of  superstition  raised  thereon  ;  I  will, 
however,  stop  a  moment,  to  expose  the  fallacious  application  of 
this  passage. 

Whether  Isaiah  was  playing  a  trick  with  Ahaz,  king  of  Judah, 
to  whom  this  passage  is  spoken,  is  no  business  of  mine  ;  I  mean 
only  to  show  the  misapplication  of  the  passage,  and  that  it  has  no 
more  reference  to  Christ  and  his  mother  than  it  has  to  me  and  my 
mother.     The  story  is  simply  this  : 

The  king  of  Syria  and  the  king  of  Israel  (I  have  already  men- 
tioned that  the  Jews  were  split  into  two  nations,  one  of  which  was 
called  Judah,  the  capital  of  which  was  Jerusalem,  and  the  other 
Israel)  made  war  jointly  against  Ahaz,  king  of  Judah,  and  marched 
their  armies  towards  Jerusalem.  Ahaz  and  his  people  became 
alarmed,  and  the  account  says,  ver.  2,  "  Their  hearts  were  movea 
as  the  trees  of  the  wood  are  moved  with  the  tfind." 

In  this  situation  of  things,  Isaiah  addresses  himself  to  Ahaz,  and 
assures  him  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  (the  cant  phrase  of  all  the 
prophets)  that  these  two  kings  should  not  succeed  against  him  ; 
and  to  satisfy  Ahaz  that  this  should  be  the  case,  tells  him  to  ask  a 
sign.  This,  the  account  says,  Ahaz  declined  doing  ;  giving  as  a 
reason  that  he  would  not  tempt  the  Lord  ;  upon  which  Isaiah,  who 
is  the  speaker,  says,  ver.  14,  "Therefore  the  Lord  himself  shall 
give  you  a  sign  ;  behold  a  virgin  shall  conceive  and  hear  a  son  ;" 
and  the  16th  verse  says,  '■'■  And  before  this  child  shall  know  to 
refuse  the  evil,  and  chuse  the  good,  the  land  which  thou  abhorrcst 
or  dreadest  (meaning  Syria  and  the  kingdom  of  Israel)  shall  be 
forsaken  of  both  her  kings."  Here  then  was  the  sign,  and  the 
time  limited  for  the  completion  of  the  assurance  or  promise ; 
namely,  before  this  child  should  know  to  refuse  the  evil  and  chuse 
the  good. 

Isaiah  having  committed  himself  thus  far,  it  became  necessary 
to  him,  in  order  to  avoid  the  imputation  of  being  a  false  prophet, 
and  the  consequence  thereof,  to  take  measures  to  make  this  sign 
appear.  It  certainly  was  not  a  difficult  thing,  in  any  time  of  the 
world,  to  find  a  girl  with  child,  or  to  make  her  so ;  and  perhaps 
Isaiah  knew  of  one  before-hand  ;  for  I  do  not  suppose  Uiat  the 


108  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART  1% 

prophets  of  that  day  were  any  more  to  be  trusted  than  the  priesta 
of  this  :  be  that,  however,  as  it  may,  he  says  in  the  next  chapter, 
ver.  2,  "  And  I  took  unto  me  faithful  witnesses  to  record,  Uriah 
the  priest,  and  Zechariah  the  son  of  Jeberechiah,  and  /  went  unto 
the  prophetess,  and  she  conceived  and  bare  a  son.^^ 

Here  then  is  the  whole  story,  foolish  as  it  is,  of  this  child  and 
this  virgin  ;  and  it  is  upon  the  bare-faced  perversion  of  this  story, 
that  the  book  of  Matthew,  and  the  impudence  and  sordid  interests 
of  priests  in  latter  times,  have  founded  a  theory  which  they  call  the 
gospel ;  and  have  applied  this  story  to  signify  the  person  they  call 
Tesus  Christ ;  begotten,  they  say,  by  a  ghost,  whom  they  call 
holy,  on  the  body  of  a  woman,  engaged  in  marriage,  and  after- 
wards married,  whom  they  call  a  virgin,  700  years  after  this  fool- 
ish story  was  told  ;  a  theory  which,  speaking  for  myself,  I 
hesitate  not  to  believe,  and  to  say,  is  as  fabulous  and  false  as  God 
IS  true.* 

But  to  show  the  imposition  and  falsehood  of  Isaiah,  we  have 
only  to  attend  to  the  sequel  of  this  story  ;  which,  though  it  is 
passed  over  in  silence  ia  the  book  of  Isaiah,  is  related  in  the  28th 
chapter  of  the  second  Chronicles  ;  and  which  is,  that  instead  of 
these  two  kings  -failing  in  their  attempt  against  Ahaz,  king  of 
Judah,  as  Isaiah  had  pretended  to  foretel  in  the  name  of  the  Lord, 
they  succeeded;  Ahaz  was  defeated  and  destroyed  ;  an  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  of  his  people  were  slaughtered  ;  Jerusalem 
was  plundered,  and  two  hundred  thousand  women,  and  sons  and 
daughters,  carried  into  captivity.  Thus  much  for  this  lying  pro- 
phet and  impostor  Isaiah,  and  the  book  of  falsehoods  that  bears 
his  name.     I  pass  on  to  the  book  of 

Jeremiah.  This  prophet,  as  he  is  called,  lived  in  the  time  thaf 
Nebuchadnezzar  besieged  Jerusalem,  in  the  reign  of  Zedekiah, 
the  last  king  of  Judah  ;  and  the  suspicion  was  strong  against  him, 
that  he  was  a  traitor  in  the  interest  of  Nebuchadnezzar.  Every 
thing  relating  to  Jeremiah  shows  him  to  have  been  a  man  of  an 
equivocal  character  :  in  his  metaphor  of  the  potter  and  the  clay, 
c.  xviii.  he  guards  his  prognostications  in  such  a  crafty  manner,  as 
always  to  leave  himself  a  door  to  escape  by,  in  case  the  event 
should  be  contrary  to  what  he  had  predicted. 

*  In  the  14lh  verse  of  the  viith  chapter,  it  is  said,  that  the  child  should  be 
called  Immanuel ;  but  this  name  was  not  given  to  either  of  the  children,  other- 
wise than  as  a  character  which  the  word  signifies.  Thut  of  the  prophetess 
was  called  Maher-shalal-hash-baz,  and  that  of  Mary  was  called  Jesus. 


PART  n.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  109 

In  the  7th  and  8th  verses  of  that  chapter,  he  makes  the  Al 
mighty  to  say,  "  At  what  instant  I  shall  speak  concerning  a  nation, 
and  concerning  a  kingdom,  to  pluck  up,  and  to  pull  down,  and 
destroy  it :  if  that  nation,  against  whom  I  have  pronounced,  turn 
from  their  evil,  I  will  repent  me  of  the  evil  that  I  thought  to  do 
unto  them."  Here  was  a  proviso  against  one  side  of  the  case  : 
now  for  the  other  side. 

Verses  9  and  10,  "  At  what  instant  I  shall  speak  concerning  a 
nation,  and  concerning  a  kingdom,  to  build  and  to  plant  it,  if  it  do 
evil  in  my  sight,  that  it  obey  not  my  voice  :  then  I  will  repent  me 
of  the  good  wherewith  I  said  I  would  benefit  them."  Here  is  a 
proviso  against  the  other  side  ;  and,  according  to  this  plan  of  pro- 
phesying, a  prophet  could  never  be  wrong,  however  mistaken  the 
Almighty  might  be.  This  sort  of  absurd  subterfuge,  and  this 
manner  of  speaking  of  the  Almighty,  as  one  would  speak  of  a 
man,  is  consistent  with  nothing  but  the  stupidity  of  the  Bible. 

As  to  the  authenticity  of  the  book,  it  is  only  necessary  to  read 
it  in  order  to  decide  positively,  that,  though  some  passages  record- 
ed therein  may  have  been  spoken  by  Jeremiah,  he  is  not  the  au- 
thor of  the  book.  The  historical  parts,  if  they  can  be  called  by  that 
name,  are  in  the  most  confused  condition  ;  the  same  events  are 
several  times  repeated,  and  that  in  a  manner  different,  and  some- 
times in  contradiction  to  each  other  ;  and  this  disorder  runs  even 
to  the  last  chapter,  where  the  history,  upon  which  the  greater  part 
of  the  book  has  been  employed,  begins  a-new,  and  ends  abruptly. 
The  book  has  all  the  appearance  of  being  a  medley  of  unconnect- 
ed anecdotes,  respecting  persons  and  things  of  that  time,  collected 
together  in  the  same  rude  manner  as  if  the  various  and  contradic- 
tory accounts,  that  are  to  l>e  found  in  a  bundle  of  newspapers,  re- 
specting persons  and  things  of  the  present  day,  were  put  together 
without  date,  order  or  explanation.  I  will  give  two  or  three  ex- 
amples of  this  kind. 

It  appears,  from  the  account  of  the  37th  chapter,  that  the  army 
of  Nebuchadnezzar,  which  is  called  the  army  of  the  Chaldeans, 
had  besieged  Jerusalem  some  time  ;  and  on  their  hearing  that 
the  army  of  Pharaoh,  of  Egypt,  was  marching  against  them,  they 
raised  the  seige,  and  retreated  for  a  time.  It  may  here  be  proper 
to  mention,  in  order  to  understand  this  confused  history,  that  Ne- 
buchadnezzar had  besieged  and  taken  Jerusalem,  during  the  reign 
of  Jehoakim,  the  predecessor  of  Zedekiah  ;  and  that  it  was  Nebu- 


no  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II 

chadnezzar  who  had  made  Zedekiah  king,  or  rather  viceroy  ;  and 
that  this  second  siege,  of  which  the  book  of  Jeremiah  treats,  was 
in  consequence  of  the  revolt  of  Zedekiah  against  Nebuchadnez- 
zar. This  will  in  some  measure  account  for  the  suspicion  that 
affixes  itself  to  Jeremiah,  of  being  a  traitor,  and  in  the  interest  of 
Nebuchadnezzar  ;  whom  Jeremiah  calls,  in  the  43rd  chap.  ver. 
10,  the  servant  of  God. 

The  nth  verse  of  this  chapter,  (the  37th,)  says,  "  And  it  came 
to  pass,  that,  when  the  army  of  the  Chaldeans  was  broken  up  from 
Jerusalem,  for  fear  of  Pharaoh's  army,  that  Jeremiah  went  forth 
out  of  Jerusalem,  to  go  (as  this  account  states)  into  the  land  of 
Benjamm,  to  separate  himself  thence  in  the  midst  of  the  people  ; 
and  when  he  was  in  the  gate  of  Benjamin  a  captain  of  the  ward 
was  there,  whose  name  was  Irijah  ;  and  he  took  Jeremiah  the 
prophet,  saying.  Thou  fullest  away  to  the  Chaldeans  ;  then  Jere- 
miah said.  It  is  false,  I  fall  not  away  to  the  Chaldeans."  Jeremiah 
being  thus  stopped  and  accused,  was,  after  being  examined,  com- 
mitted to  prison,  on  suspicion  of  being  a  traitor,  where  he  re- 
mained, as  is  stated  in  the  last  verse  of  this  chapter. 

But  the  next  chapter  gives  an  account  of  the  imprisonment  of 
Jeremiah,  which  has  no  connexion  with  this  account,  but  ascribes 
his  imprisonment  to  another  circumstance,  and  for  which  we  must 
go  back  to  the  21st  chapter.  It  is  there  stated,  ver.  l,that  Zede- 
kiah sent  Pashur,  the  son  of  Malchiah,  and  Zephaniah,  the  son  of 
Maaseiah  the  priest,  to  Jeremiah,  to  enquire  of  him  concerning 
Nebuchadnezzar,  whose  army  was  then  before  Jenisalem  ;  and 
Jeremiah  said  to  them,  ver.  8,  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Behold  I  set 
before  you  the  way  of  life,  and  the  way  of  death ;  he  that  abideth 
in  this  city  shall  die  by  the  sword,  and  by  the  famine,  and  by  the 
pestilence  ;  but  he  that  goeth  out  and  falleth  to  the  Chaldeans  that 
besiege  you,  he  shall  live,  and  his  life  shall  be  unto  him  for  a 
prey." 

This  interview  and  conference  breaks  off  abruptly  at  the  end  of 
the  10th  verse  of  the  21st  chapter ;  and  such  is  the  disorder  of 
this  book,  that  we  have  to  pass  over  sixteen  chapters,  upon  vai  ious 
subjects,  in  order  to  come  at  the  continuation  and  event  of  this 
conference  ;  and  this  brings  us  to  the  first  verse  of  the  3Sth  chap- 
ter, as  I  have  just  mentioned. 

The  38th  chapter  opens  with  saying, "  Then  Shapatiah,  the  son 
of  Mattan  ;  Gedaliah,  the   son  of  Pashur  ;  and  Jucal,  the  son  of 


PART  II.]  THE  AGE  Of  REASON.  Ill 

Shelemiah  ;  and  Pashur,  the  son  of  Malchiah  ;  (here  are  more 
persons  mentioned  than  in  the  21st  chapter,)  heard  the  words  that 
Jeremiah  spoke  unto  the  people,  saying,  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  He 
that  remainelh  in  this  cifrj,  shall  die  by  the  sicord,  by  the  famine, 
and  by  the  pestilence  ;  but  he  that  goeth  forth  to  the  Chaldeans 
shall  live  ;  for  he  shall  have  his  life  for  a  prey,  and  shall  live  ; 
(which  are  the  words  of  the  conference,)  therefore,  (say  they  to 
Zedekiah,)  We  beseech  thee,  let  us  put  this  man  to  death, /or  thus 
he  iveakeneth  the  hands  of  the  men  of  war  that  remain  in  this  city, 
and  the  hands  of  all  the  people  in  speaking  such  words  tmto  them  ; 
for  this  man  seeketh  not  the  welfare  of  the  people,  btit  the  hurt ;" 
and  at  the  6th  verse  it  is  said,  "  Then  they  took  Jeremiah,  and  put 
him  into  a  dungeon  of  Malchiah." 

These  two  accounts  are  different  and  contradictory.  The  one 
ascribes  his  imprisonment  to  his  attempt  to  escape  out  of  the  city  ; 
the  other  to  his  preaching  and  prophesying  in  the  city  :  the  one  to 
his  being  seized  by  the  guard  at  the  gate  ;  the  other  to  his  being 
accused  before  Zedekiah,  by  the  conferees.* 

In  the  next  chapter  (the  39th)  we  have  another  instance  of  the 
disordered  state  of  this  book  :  for  notwithstanding  the  siege  of  the 

*  I  observed  two  chapters,  16th  and  17th,  in  the  first  book  of  Samuel,  that 
contradict  each  other  with  respect  to  David,  and  the  manner  he  became  ac- 
quainted with  Saul ;  as  tlie  37th  and  38th  chapters  of  the  book  of  Jeremiah 
contradict  each  other  \vith  respect  to  the  cause  of  Jeremiah's  imprisonment. 

In  the  16th  chapter  of  Samuel,  it  is  said,  that  an  evil  spirit  of  God  troubled 
Saul,  and  that  his  servants  advised  him  (as  a  remedy)  "to  seek  out  a  man  who 
was  a  cunning  player  upon  the  harp."  And  Saul  said,  ver.  1 7,  "  Provide  now 
a  man  that  can  play  well,  and  brioghim  unto  me."  Then  answered  one  of  his 
servants,  and  said.  Behold,  I  have  seen  a  son  of  Jesse,  the  Bethlemite,  that  is 
cunning  in  playing,  and  a  mighty  man,  and  a  man  of  war,  and  prudent  in  mat- 
ters, and  a  comely  person,  and  the  Lord  is  with  him  ;  wherefore  Saul  sent 
messengers  unto  Jesse,  and  said,  "  Send  me  David,  thy  son."  And  [verse  21] 
David  came  to  Saul,  and  stood  before  him,  and  he  loved  him  greatly,  and  he 
became  his  armour-bearer  ;  and  when  tlie  evil  spirit  of  God  was  upon  Saul, 
[verse  23]  David  took  his  harp,  and  played  with  his  hand,  and  Saul  was  re 
freshed,  and  was  well. 

But  the  next  chapter  [17]  gives  an  account,  all  different  to  this,  of  the  man- 
ner that  Saul  and  David  became  acquainted.  Here  it  is  ascribed  to  David's 
encounter  with  Goliah,  when  David  was  sent  by  his  father  to  carry  provision 
to  his  brethren  in  the  camp.  In  the  55th  verse  of  this  chapter  it  is  said,  "  And 
when  Saul  saw  David  go  forth  against  the  Philistine  [Goliah]  he  said  to  Abner, 
the  captain  of  the  host,  Abner,  whose  son  is  this  youth  ?  And  Abner  said, 
As  thy  soul  liveth,  0  king,  I  cannot  tell.  And  the  king  said,  Inquire  thou 
whose  son  the  stripling  is.  And  as  David  returned  from  the  slaughter  of  the 
Piiilisline,  Abner  took  him  and  brought  him  before  Saul,  with  the  head  of  the 
Philistine  in  his  hand  ;  and  Saul  said  unto  him,  Whose  son  art  thou,  thou 
voung  man?  And  David  answered,  "I  am  the  son  of  thy  servant  Jesse,  the 
Bethlemite."  These  two  accounts  belie  each  othc^r,  because  each  of  them 
supposes  Saul  and  David  not  to  have  known  each  other  before.  This  book, 
the  Bible,  is  too  ridiculous  even  for  criticism. 


112  THt    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART  11. 

city,  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  has  been  the  subject  of  several  of  the 
preceding  chapters,  particularly  the  37th  and  3Sth,  the  39  chap- 
ter begins  as  if  not  a  word  had  been  said  upon  the  subject ;  and  as 
if  the  reader  was  to  be  informed  of  every  particular  respecting  it ; 
for  it  begins  with  saying,  ver.  1,  "  In  the  ninth  year  of  Zedekiah^ 
king  ofJudah,  in  the  tenth  month,  came  JS'ebtichadnezzar,  king  oj 
Babylon,  an^l  all  his  army,  against  Jerusalem,  and  besieged  it,  i^c. 

But  the  instance  in  the  last  chapter  (the  52d)  is  still  more  glar. 
ing  ;  for  though  the  story  has  been  told  over  and  over  again,  this 
chapter  still  supposes  the  reader  not  to  know  any  thing  of  it,  for 
it  begins  by  saying,  ver.  1,'^^Zedekiah  teas  one  and  twenty  years  old 
when  he  began  to  reign,  and  he  reigned  eleven  years  in  Jerusalem, 
and  his  mothei'^s  name  was  Hamutal,  the  daughter  of  Jeremiah  of 
lAbnah,  (ver.  4.)  and  it  came  to  pass  in  the  ninth  year  of  his 
reign,  in  the  tenth  month,  that  JVebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon, 
came,  he  and  all  his  army,  against  Jerusalem,  and  pitched  against 
it,  and  built  forts  against  it,  <^c.  c^-c." 

It  is  not  possible  that  any  one  man,  and  more  particularly  Jere- 
miah, could  have  been  the  writer  of  this  book.  The  errors  are 
such  as  could  not  have  been  committed  by  any  person  sitting 
down  to  compose  a  work.  Were  I,  or  any  other  man,  to  write  in 
such  a  disordered  manner,  nobody  would  read  what  was  written  ; 
and  every  body  would  suppose  that  the  writer  was  in  a  state  of 
insanity.  Tbo  only  way,  therefore,  to  account  for  this  disorder,  is, 
that  the  book  is  a  medley  of  detached  unauthenticated  anecdotes, 
put  together  by  some  stupid  book-maker,  under  the  name  of  Jere- 
miah ;  because  many  of  them  refer  to  him,  and  to  the  circum- 
stances of  the  times  he  lived  in. 

Of  the  duplicity,  and  of  the  false  predictions  of  Jeremiah,  I  shall 
mention  two  instances,  and  then  proceed  to  review  the  remainder 
of  the  Bible. 

It  appears  from  the  3Sth  chapter,  that  when  Jeremiah  was  in 
prison,  Zedekiah  sent  for  him,  and  at  this  interview,  which  was 
private,  Jeremiah  pressed  it  strongly  on  Zedekiah  to  surrender 
himself  to  the  enemy.  "  //","  says  he,  (ver.  17,)  "  thouwilt  assuredly 
go  forth  unto  the  king  of  Babylon'' s  princes,  then  thy  soul  shall  live, 
^c."  Zedekiah  was  apprehensive  that  what  passed  at  this  con- 
ference should  be  known  ;  and  he  said  to  Je^-emiah,  (ver.  25,) 
"If  the  princes  (meaning  those  of  Judah)  hear  that  I  have  talked 


PART  U.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  113 

with  thee,  and  they  come  unto  thee,  and  say  unto  thee,  Declare 
unto  us  now  what  thou  hast  said  unto  the  king  ;  hide  it  not  from 
us,  and  we  will  not  put  thee  to  death  ;  and  also  what  the  king  said 
unto  thee ;  then  thou  shalt  say  unto  them,  I  presented  my  suppli- 
cation before  the  king  ;  that  he  would  not  cause  me  to  return  to 
Jonathan's  house  to  die  there.  Then  came  all  the  princes  unto 
Jeremiah,  and  asked  him,  and  he  told  them  according  to  all  the 
toords  the  king  had  commanded.^^  Thus,  this  man  of  God,  as  he 
is  called,  could  tell  a  lie,  or  very  strongly  prevaricate,  when  he 
supposed  it  would  answer  his  purpose  ;  for  certainly  he  did  not  go 
to  Zedekiah  to  make  his  supplication,  neither  did  he  make  it ;  he 
went  because  he  was  sent  for,  and  he  employed  that  opportunity 
to  advise  Zedekiah  to  surrender  himself  to  Nebuchadnezzar. 

In  the  34th  chapter,  is  a  prophecy  of  Jeremiah  to  Zedekiah,  in 
these  words,  (ver.  2,)  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Behold  I  will  give 
this  city  into  the  hands  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  he  will  burn  it 
with  fire  ;  and  thou  shalt  not  escape  out  of  his  hand,  but  that  thou 
shalt  surely  be  taken,  and  delivered  into  his  hand  ;  and  thine  eyes 
shall  behold  the  eyes  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  he  shall  speak 
with  thee  mouth  to  mouth,  and  thou  shalt  go  to  Babylon.  Yet 
hear  the  word  of  the  Lord ;  0  Zedekiah,  king  of  Judah,  thus 
saith  the  Lord,  Thou  shalt  not  die  by  the  sword,  hut  thou  shalt  die 
in  peace  ;  and  with  the  burnings  of  thy  fathers,  the  fonner  kings 
that  were  before  thee,  so  shall  they  burn  odours  for  thee,  and  they 
xoill  lament  thee,  satjing,  Jih,  Lord ;  for  I  have  pronounced  the 
word,  saith  the  Lord." 

Now,  instead  of  Zedekiah  beholding  the  eyes  of  the  king  of 
Babylon,  and  speaking  with  him  mouth  to  mouth,  and  dying 
in  peace,  and  with  the  burning  of  odours,  as  at  the  funeral  of 
his  fathers,  (as  Jeremiah  had  declared  the  Lord  himself  had 
pronounced,)  the  reverse,  according  to  the  52d  chapter,  Avas 
the  case  ;  it  is  there  said,  (ver.  10,)  "  That  the  king  of  Babylon 
slew  the  sons  of  Zedekiah  before  his  eyes  :  then  he  put  out 
the  eyes  of  Zedekiah,  and  bound  him  in  chains,  and  carried  him 
to  Babylon,  and  put  him  in  prison  till  the  day  of  his  death." 
What  then  can  we  say  of  these  prophets,  but  that  they  are 
impostors  and  liars  ? 

As  for  Jeremiah,  he  experienced  none  of  those  evils.     He  was 
taken  into  favour  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  who  gave  him  in  charge  to 
the  captain  of  the  guard,  (chap,  xxxix.  ver.  12,)  "Take  him  (said 
15 


114  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART  If. 

he)  and  look  well  to  him,  and  do  him  no  harm  ;  but  do  unto  him 
even  as  he  shall  say  unto  thee."  Jeremiah  joined  himself  after- 
wards to  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  went  about  prophesying  for  him 
against  the  Egyptians,  who  had  marched  to  the  relief  of  Jerusa- 
lem while  it  was  besieged.  Thus  much  for  another  of  the  lying 
prophets,  and  the  book  that  bears  his  name. 

I  have  been  the  more  particular  in  treating  of  the  books  ascribed 
to  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  because  those  two  are  spoken  of  in  the 
books  of  Kings  and  of  Chronicles,  which  the  others  are  not.  Tho 
remainder  of  the  books  ascribed  to  the  men  called  prophets,  I  shall 
not  trouble  myself  much  about ;  but  take  them  collectively  into 
the  observations  I  shall  offer  on  the  character  of  the  men  styled 
prophets. 

In  the  former  part  oi  the  Age  of  Reason,  I  have  said  that  the 
word  prophet  was  the  Bible  word  for  poet,  and  that  the  flights 
and  metaphors  of  Jewish  poets  have  been  foolishly  erected  into 
what  are  now  called  prophecies.  I  am  sufficiently  justified  in  this 
opmion,  not  only  because  the  books  called  the  prophecies  are 
written  in  poetical  language,  but  because  there  is  no  word  in  the 
Bible,  except  it  be  the  word  prophet,  that  describes  what  we  mean 
by  a  poet.  I  have  also  said,  that  the  word  signifies  a  performer 
upon  musical  instruments,  of  which  I  have  given  some  instances; 
such  as  that  of  a  company  of  prophets  prophesying  with  psalteries, 
with  tabrets,  with  pipes,  with  harps,  &c.  and  that  Saul  prophesied 
with  them,  1  Sam.  chap.  x.  ver.  5.  It  appears  from  this  passage, 
and  from  other  parts  in  the  book  of  Samuel,  that  the  word  prophet 
was  confined  to  signify  poetry  and  music  ;  for  the  person  who 
was  supposed  to  have  a  visionary  insight  into  concealed  things, 
was  not  a  prophet  but  a  seer,*  (1  Sam.  chap.  ix.  ver.  9  ;)  and  it 
-was  not  till  after  the  word  seer  went  out  of  use  (which  most  pro- 
bably was  when  Saul  banished  those  he  called  wizards)  that  the 
profe«eion  of  the  seer,  or  the  art  of  seeing,  became  incorporated 
into  the  word  prophet. 

According  to  the  modern  meaning  of  the  word  prophet  and  pro- 
phesying, it  signifies  foretelling  events  to  a  great  distance  of  time  ; 
and  it  became  necessary  to  the  inventors  of  the  gospel  to  give  it 
this  latitude  of  meaning,  in  order  to  apply  or  to  stretch  what  they 

«  I  know  not  what  is  the  Hebrew  word  that  corresponds  to  the  word  seer 
m  English ;  but  1  observe  it  is  translated  into  French  by  La  Voyant,  from 
the  verb  voir  to  see;  and  which  means  the  person  who  sees,  or  the  seer. 


PART  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON-  115 

call  the  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament,  to  the  times  of  the  New; 
but  according  to  the  Old  Testament,  the  prophesying  of  the  seer, 
and  afterwards  of  the  prophet,  so  far  as  the  meaning  of  the  word 
seer  was  incorporated  into  that  of  prophet,  had  reference  only  to 
things  of  the  time  then  passing,  or  very  closely  connected  with  it ; 
such  as  the  event  of  a  battle  they  were  going  to  engage  in,  or  of  a 
journey,  or  of  any  enterprise  they  were  going  to  undertake,  or  of 
any  circumstance  then  pending,  or  of  any  difficulty  they  were  then 
in  ;  all  of  which  had  immediate  reference  to  themselves  (as  in  the 
case  already  mentioned  of  Ahaz  and  Isaiah  with  respect  to  the 
expression.  Behold  a  virgin  shall  conceive  and  bear  a  son,)  and 
not  to  any  distant  future  time.  It  was  that  kind  of  prophesying 
that  corresponds  to  what  we  call  fortune-telling  ;  such  as  casting 
nativities,  predicting  riches,  fortunate  or  unfortunate  marriages, 
conjuring  for  lost  goods,  &c.;  and  it  is  the  fraud  of  the  Christian 
church,  not  that  of  the  Jews  ;  and  the  ignorance  and  the  supersti- 
tion of  modern,  not  that  of  ancient  times,  that  elevated  those  poet- 
ical— musical — conjuring — dreaming — strolling  gentry,  into  the 
rank  they  have  since  had. 

But,  besides  this  general  character  of  all  the  prophets,  they  had 
also  a  particular  character.  They  were  in  parties,  and  they  pro- 
phesied for  or  against,  according  to  the  party  they  were  with ;  as 
the  poetical  and  political  writers  of  the  present  day  write  in 
defence  of  the  party  they  associate  with  against  the  other. 

After  the  Jews  were  divided  into  two  nations,  that  of  Judah 
and  that  of  Israel,  each  party  had  its  prophets,  who  abused 
and  accused  each  other  of  being  false  prophets,  lying  prophets, 
impostors,  &c. 

The  prophets  of  the  party  of  Judah  prophesied  against  the  pro- 
phets of  the  party  of  Israel  ;  and  those  of  the  party  of  Israel 
against  those  of  Judah.  This  party  prophesying  showed  itself 
immediately  on  the  separation  under  the  first  two  rival  kings, 
Rehoboam  and  Jeroboam.  The  prophet  that  cursed,  or  prophesied 
against  the  altar  that  Jeroboam  had  built  in  Bethel,  was  of  the 
party  of  Judah,  where  Rehoboam  was  king  ;  and  he  was  way -laid, 
on  his  return  home,  by  a  prophet  of  the  party  of  Israel,  who  said 
unto  him,  (1  Kings  chap,  x.)  "  ^rt  thou  the  man  of  God  that  came 
from  Judah  ?  and  he  said,  1  am."  Then  the  prophet  of  the 
party  of  Israel  said  to  him,  '■*■  1  am  a  prophet  also,  as  thou  art^ 
(signifying  of  Judah,)  and  an  angel  spake  unto  me  by  the  word  of 


116  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II. 

the  Lord,  saying,  Bring  him  back  with  thee  unto  thine  house,  that 
he  may  eat  bread  and  drink  water  :  but  (says  the  18th  verse)  he 
lied  unto  him.''''  This  event,  however,  according  to  the  story,  is, 
that  the  prophet  of  Judah  never  got  back  to  Judah,  for  he  was 
found  dead  on  the  road,  by  the  contrivance  of  the  prophet  of 
Israel,  who,  no  doubt,  was  called  a  true  prophet  by  his  own  party, 
and  the  prophet  of  Judah  a  lying  prophet. 

In  the  third  chapter  of  the  second  of  Kings,  a  story  is  related  of 
prophesying  or  conjuring,  that  shows,  in  several  particulars,  the 
character  of  a  prophet.  Jehoshaphat,  king  of  Judah,  and  Joram, 
king  of  Israel,  had  for  a  while  ceased  their  party  animosity,  and 
entered  into  an  alliance  ;  and  these  two,  together  with  the  king 
of  Edom,  engaged  in  a  war  against  the  king  of  Moab.  After 
uniting,  and  marching  their  armies,  the  story  says,  they  were  in  great 
distress  for  water,  upon  which  Jehoshaphat,  said,  "  Is  there  not 
here  a  prophet  of  the  Lord,  that  we  may  enquire  of  the  Lord  by 
him  ?  and  one  of  the  servants  of  the  king  of  Israel  said  here  is  Eli- 
sha.  (Elisha  was  of  the  party  of  Judah.)  And  Jehoshaphat,  the 
king  of  Judah,  said.  The  word  of  the  Lord  is  with  him.^^  The 
story  then  says,  that  these  three  kings  went  down  to  Elisha ;  and 
when  Ehsha  (who,  as  I  have  said,  was  a  Judahmite  prophet)  saw 
the  king  of  Israel,  he  said  unto  him,  "  What  have  I  to  do  with 
thee,  get  thee  to  the  prophets  of  thy  father  and  the  prophets  oj 
thy  mother.  JYay  but,  said  the  king  of  Israel,  the  Lord  hath 
called  these  three  kings  together,  to  deliver  them  into  the  hands  of 
the  king  of  M.oab,'''  (meaning  because  of  the  distress  they  were 
in  for  water ;)  upon  which  Elisha  said,  "  As  the  Lord  of  hosts 
liveth  before  whom  I  stand,  surely,  were  it  not  that  I  regarded  Je 
hoshaphat,  king  of  Judah,  I  would  not  look  towards  thee,  nor  see 
thee.^^  Here  is  all  the  venom  and  vulgarity  of  a  party  prophet. — 
We  have  now  to  see  the  performance,  or  manner  of  prophesying. 

Ver.  15.  "  Bring  me,''  said  Elisha,  "  a  minstrel;  and  it  came 
to  pass,  when  the  minstrel  played,  that  the  hand  of  the  Lord  came 
upon  himJ'  Here  is  the  farce  of  the  conjuror.  Now  for  the  pro- 
phecy :  "  And  Elisha  said,  (singing  most  probably  to  the  tunc 
he  was  playing,)  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Make  this  valley  full  oj 
ditches  i*^  which  was  just  telling  them  what  every  countryman 
could  have  told  them,  without  either  fiddle  or  farce,  that  the  way 
to  get  water  was  to  dig  for  it. 

But  as  every  conjuror  is  not  famous  alike  for  the  same  thing 


PART    11  ]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  117 

SO  neither  were  those  prophets ;  for  though  all  of  them,  at  least 
those  I  have  spoken  of,  were  famous  for  lying,  some  of  them  ex- 
celled in  cursing.  Elisha,  whom  I  have  just  mentioned,  was  a  chief 
in  this  branch  of  prophesying  ;  it  was  he  that  cursed  the  forty-two 
children  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  whom  the  two  she-bears  came 
and  devoured.  We  are  to  suppose  that  those  children  were  of  the 
party  of  Israel ;  but  as  those  who  will  curse  will  lie,  there  is  just 
as  much  credit  to  be  given  to  this  story  of  Elisha's  two  she-bears 
as  there  is  to  that  of  the  Dragon  of  Wantley,  of  whom  it  is  said. — 

Poor  children  three  devoured  he, 
That  could  not  with  him  grapple  ; 
And  at  one  sup  he  eat  them  up, 
As  a  man  would  eat  an  apple. 

There  was  another  description  of  men  called  prophets,  that 
amused  themselves  with  dreams  and  visions  ;  but  whether  by 
night  or  by  day,  we  know  not.  These,  if  they  were  not  quite 
harmless,  were  but  little  mischievous.     Of  this  class  are 

Ezekiel  and  Daniel ;  and  the  first  question  upon  those  books, 
as  upon  all  the  others,  is,  are  they  genuine  1  that  is,  were  they 
written  by  Ezekiel  and  Daniel  ? 

Of  this  there  is  no  proof;  but  so  far  as  my  own  opinion  goes, 
I  am  more  inclined  to  believe  they  were,  than  that  they  were  not. 
My  reasons  for  this  opinion  are  as  follow  :  First,  Because  those 
books  do  not  contain  internal  evidence  to  prove  they  were  not  writ- 
ten by  Ezekiel  and  Daniel,  as  the  books  ascribed  to  Moses, 
Joshua,  Samuel,  &c.  &c.  prove  they  were  not  written  by  Moses, 
Joshua,  Samuel,  &c. 

Secondly,  Because  they  were  not  written  till  after  the  Babylonish 
captivity  began  ;  and  there  is  good  reason  to  beUeve,  that  not  any 
book  in  the  Bible  was  written  before  that  period :  at  least,  it  is  prove- 
able,  from,  the  books  themselves,  as  I  have  already  shown,  that  they 
were  not  written  till  after  the  commencement  of  the  Jewish 
monarchy. 

Thirdly,  Because  the  manner  in  which  the  books  ascribed  to 
Ezekiel  and  Daniel  are  written,  agrees  with  the  condition  these 
men  were  in  at  the  time  of  writing  them. 

Had  the  numerous  commentators  and  priests,  who  have  foolish- 
ly employed  or  wasted  their  time  in  pretending  to  expound  and 
unriddle  those  books,  have  been  carried  into  captivity,  as  Ezekiel 
and  Daniel  were,  it  would  have  greatly  improved  their  intellects^ 
in  comprehending  the  reason  for  this  mode  of  writing,  and  have 


118  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II 

Aaved  them  the  trouble  of  racking  their  invention,  as  they  have 
done,  to  no  purpose  ;  for  they  would  have  found  that  themselves 
would  be  obliged  to  write  whatever  they  had  to  write,  respecting 
their  own  affairs,  or  those  of  their  friends,  or  of  their  country, 
in  a  concealed  manner,  as  those  men  have  done. 

These  two  books  differ  from  all  the  rest ;  for  it  is  only  these 
that  are  filled  with  accounts  of  dreams  and  visions :  and  this 
difference  arose  from  the  situation  the  writers  were  in  as 
prisoners  of  war,  or  prisoners  of  state,  in  a  foreign  countiy,  which 
obliged  them  to  convey  even  the  most  trifling  information  to  each 
other,  and  all  their  political  projects  or  opinions,  in  obscure  and 
metaphorical  terms.  They  pretend  to  have  dreamed  dreams,  and 
seen  visions,  because  it  was  unsafe  for  them  to  speak  facts  or 
plain  language.  We  ought,  however,  to  suppose,  that  the  persons 
to  whom  they  wrote,  understood  what  they  meant,  and  that  it  was 
not  intended  any  body  else  should.  But  these  busy  commentators 
and  priests  have  been  puzzling  their  wits  to  find  out  what  it  was 
not  intended  they  should  know,  and  with  which  they  have  nothing 
to  do. 

Ezekiel  and  Daniel  were  carried  prisoners  to  Babylon,  under 
the  first  captivity,  in  the  time  of  Jehoiakim,  nine  years  before  the 
second  captivity  in  the  time  of  Zedekiah.  The  Jews  were  then 
siiU  numerous,  and  had  considerable  force  at  Jerusalem  ;  and  as  it 
is  natural  to  suppose  that  men  in  the  situation  of  Ezekiel  and  Dan- 
iel, would  be  meditating  the  recovery  of  their  country,  and  their 
own  deliverance,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  the  accounts  ot 
dreams  and  visions,  with  which  these  books  are  filled,  are  no  other 
than  a  disguised  mode  of  correspondence,  to  facilitate  those  ob- 
jects :  it  served  them  as  a  cypher,  or  secret  alphabet.  If  they  are 
not  this,  they  are  tales,  reveries,  and  nonsense  ;  or,  at  least,  a  fan- 
ciful way  of  wearing  off  the  wearisomeness  of  captivity  ;  but  the 
presumption  is,  they  were  the  former. 

Ezekiel  begins  his  books  by  speaking  of  a  vision  of  cheruhhns, 
and  of  a  wheel  ivithin  a  wheel,  which  he  says  he  saw  by  the  river 
Chebar,  in  the  land  of  his  captivity.  Is  it  not  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose, that  by  the  cherubims,  he  meant  the  temple  at  Jerusalem, 
where  they  had  figures  of  cherubims  1  and  by  a  wheel  within  a 
wheel  (which,  as  a  figure,  has  always  been  understood  to  signify 
political  contrivance)  the  project  or  means  of  recovering  Jerusa- 
lem? In  the  latter  part  of  this  book,  he  supposes  liimself  trans- 


FART    II.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASt>N.  119 

ported  to  Jerusalem,  and  into  the  temple  ;  and  he  refers  oack  to 
the  vision  on  the  river  Chebar,  and  says,  (chap.  xlhi.  ver.  3,)  that 
this  last  vision  was  like  the  vision  on  the  river  Chebar  ;  which  in- 
dicates, that  those  pretended  dreams  and  visions  had  for  their  ob- 
ject the  recovery  of  Jerusalem,  and  nothing  further. 

As  to  the  romantic  interpretations  and  applications,  wild  as  the 
dreams  and  visions  they  undertake  to  explain,  which  commentators 
and  priests  have  made  of  those  books,  that  of  converting  them 
into  things  which  they  call  prophecies,  and  making  them  bend  to 
times  and  circumstances,  as  far  remote  even  as  the  present  day, 
it  shows  the  fraud  or  the  extreme  folly  to  which  credulity  or  priest- 
craft can  go. 

Scarcely  any  thing  can  be  more  absurd,  than  to  suppose  that  men 
situated  as  Ezekiel  and  Daniel  were,  whose  country  was  over-run, 
and  in  the  possession  of  the  enemy,  all  their  friends  and  relations 
'n  captivity  abroad,  or  in  slavery  at  home,  or  massacred,  or  in  con- 
.mual  danger  of  it ;  scarcely  any  thing,  I  say,  can  be  more  absurd, 
xhan  to  suppose  that  such  men  should  find  nothing  to  do  but  that 
of  employing  their  time  and  their  thoughts  about  what  was  to  hap- 
pen to  other  nations  a  thousand  or  two  thousand  years  after  they 
were  dead  ;  at  the  same  time,  nothing  is  more  natural,  than  that 
they  should  meditate  the  recovery  of  Jerusalem,  and  their  own 
deliverance ;  and  that  this  was  the  sole  object  of  all  the  obscure 
and  apparently  frantic  writings  contained  in  those  books. 

In  this  sense,  the  mode  of  writing  used  in  those  two  books  being 
forced  by  necessity,  and  not  adopted  by  choice,  is  not  irrational ; 
but  if  we  are  to  use  the  books  as  prophecies,  they  are  false.  In 
the29lhchapter  of  Ezekiel,  speakingof  Egypt,  it  is  said,  (ver.  11,) 
•*  J^o  fool  of  man  should  pass  through  it,  nor  foot  of  beast  should 
pass  through  it ;  neither  shall  it  be  inhabited  for  forty  years." 
This  is  what  never  came  to  pass,  and  consequently  it  is  false,  as 
all  the  books  I  have  already  reviewed  are.  I  here  close  this  part 
of  the  subject. 

In  the  former  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason  I  have  spoken  of  Jonah, 
and  of  the  story  of  him  and  the  whale.  A  fit  story  for  ridicule,  if 
it  was  written  to  be  believed  ;  or  of  laughter,  if  it  was  intended  to 
try  what  credulity  could  swallow  ;  for  if  it  could  swallow  Jonah 
and  the  whale,  it  could  swallow  any  thing. 

But,  as  is  already  shown  in  the  observations  on  the  book  of  Job, 
«nd  of  Proverbs,  it  is  not  always  certain  which  of  the  books  in  th^ 


120  THE    AGE    OF    REASON".  [pART  II. 

Bible  are  on''g'inally  Hebrew  or  only  translations  from  books  of  the 
Gentiles  into  Hebrew ;  and,  as  the  book  of  Jonah,  so  far  from 
treating  of  the  affairs  of  the  Jews,  says  nothing  upon  that  subject, 
but  treats  altogether  of  the  Gentiles,  it  is  more  probable  that  it  is 
a  book  of  the  Gentiles  than  of  the  Jews;  and  that  it  has  been 
written  as  a  fable,  to  expose  the  nonsense  and  satirise  the  vicious 
and  malignant  character  of  a  Bible  prophet,  or  a  predicting  priest. 

Jonah  is  represented,  fir^t,  as  a  disobedient  prophet,  running 
away  from  his  mission,  and  taking  shelter  aboard  a  vessel  of  the 
Gentiles,  bound  from  Joppa  to  Tarshish  ;  as  if  he  ignorantly  sup- 
posed, by  such  a  paltry  contrivance,  he  could  hide  himself  where 
God  could  not  find  him.  The  vessel  is  overtaken  by  a  storm  at 
sea ;  and  the  mariners,  all  of  whom  are  Gentiles,  believing  it  to 
be  a  judgment,  on  account  of  some  one  on  board  who  had  com- 
mitted a  crime,  agreed  to  cast  lots,  to  discover  the  offender  ;  and 
the  lot  fell  upon  Jonah.  But,  before  this,  they  had  cast  all  their 
wares  and  merchandise  overboard,  to  lighten  the  vessel,  while 
Jonah,  like  a  stupid  fellow,  was  fast  asleep  in  the  hold. 

After  the  lot  had  designated  Jonah  to  be  the  offender,  they  ques- 
tioned him  to  know  who  and  what  he  was  ?  and  he  told  them  he 
ivas  an  Hebrew  ;  and  the  story  implies  that  he  confessed  himself 
to  be  guilty.  But  these  Gentiles  instead  of  sacrificing  him  at 
once,  without  pity  or  mercy,  as  a  company  of  Bible-prophets  or 
priests  would  have  done  by  a  Gentile  in  the  same  case,  and  as  it 
is  related  Samuel  had  done  by  A  gag,  and  Moses  by  the  women 
and  children,  they  endeavoured  to  save  him,  though  at  the  risk  of 
their  own  lives  ;  for  the  account  says,  "  jyevertheless  (that  is, 
though  Jonah  was  a  Jew,  and  a  foreigner,  and  the  cause  of  all  their 
misfortunes,  and  the  loss  of  their  cargo)  the  men  rowed  hard  to 
bring  the  boat  to  land,  but  they  could  not,  for  the  sea  wrought  and 
was  tempestuous  against  them."  Still,  however,  they  were  unwill- 
ing to  put  the  fate  of  the  lot  into  execution  ;  and  they  cried  (says 
the  account)  unto  the  Lord,  saying,  "  We  beseech  thee,  O  Lord, 
let  us  not  perish  for  this  man's  life,  and  lay  not  upon  us  innocent 
blood;  for  thou,  O  Lord,  hast  done  as  it  pleased  thee."  Meaning 
thereby,  that  they  did  not  presume  to  judge  Jonah  guilty,  since 
that  he  might  be  innocent ;  but  that  they  considered  the  lot  that 
had  fallen  upon  him  as  a  decree  of  God,  or  as  it  pleased  God. 
The  address  of  this  prayer  shows  that  the  Gentiles  worshipped  one 
Supreme  Being,  and  that   they  were  not   idolators,  as  the  Jews 


PART  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  121 

represented  them  to  be.  But  the  storm  stil.  continuing,  and  the 
danger  increasing,  they  put  the  fate  of  the  lot  into  execution,  and 
cast  Jonah  into  the  sea  ;  where,  according  to  the  story,  a  great 
fish  swallowed  him  up  whole  and  alive. 

We  have  now  to  consider  Jonah  securely  housed  from  the 
storm  in  the  fish's  belly.  Here  we  are  told  that  he  prayed  ;  but 
the  prayer  is  a  made-up  prayer,  taken  from  various  parts  of  the 
Psalms,  without  any  connexion  or  consistency,  and  adapted  to  the 
distress,  but  not  at  all  to  the  condition,  that  Jonah  was  in.  It  is 
such  a  prayer  as  a  Gentile,  who  might  know  something  of  the 
Psalms,  could  copy  out  for  him.  This  circumstance  alone,  were 
there  no  other,  is  sufficient  to  indicate  that  the  whole  is  a  made-up 
story.  The  prayer,  however,  is  supposed  to  have  answered  the 
purpose,  and  the  story  goes  on,  (taking  up  at  the  same  time  the 
cant  language  of  a  Bible  prophet,)  saying,  "  TTie  Lord  sjjake  unto 
the  fish,  and  it  vomited  out  Jonah  upon  dryland." 

Jonah  then  received  a  second  mission  to  Ninevah,  with  which 
he  sets  out ;  and  we  have  now  to  consider  him  as  a  preacher. 
The  distress  he  is  represented  to  have  suffered,  the  remembrance 
of  his  own  disobedience  as  the  cause  of  it,  and  the  miraculous 
escape  he  is  supposed  to  have  had,  were  sufficient,  one  would  con- 
ceive, to  have  impressed  him  with  sympathy  and  benevolence  in 
the  execution  of  his  mission  ;  but,  instead  of  this,  he  enters  the 
city  with  denunciation  and  malediction  in  his  mouth,  crying,  '*  Yet 
forty  datjSy  and  JSlnevah  shall  be  overthroivny 

We  have  now  to  consider  this  supposed  missionary  in  the 
last  act  of  his  mission  ;  and  here  it  is  that  the  malevolent  spirit 
of  a  Bible-prophet,  or  of  a  predicting  priest,  appears  in  all  that 
blackness  of  character,  that  men  ascribe  to  the  being  they  call 
the  devil. 

Having  published  his  predictions,  he  withdrew,  says  the  story, 
to  the  east  side  of  the  city.  But  for  what  1  not  to  contemplate,  in 
retirement,  the  mercy  of  his  Creator  to  himself,  or  to  others,  but 
to  wait  with  malignant  impatience,  the  destruction  of  Ninevah.  It 
came  to  pass,  however,  as  the  story  relates,  that  the  Nineviles 
reformed,  and  that  God,  according  to  the  Bible  phrase,  repented 
him  of  the  evil  he  had  said  he  would  do  unto  them,  and  did  it  not. 
This,  saith  the  first  verse  of  the  last  chapter,  displeased  Jonah 
exceedingly  and  he  was  very  angry.  His  obdurate  heart  would 
rather  that  all  Ninevah  should  be  destroyed,  cvnd  every  soul,  young 
16 


l22  THE    ACE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II. 

and  old,  perish  in  its  ruins,  than  that  his  prediction  should  not 
be  fulfilled.  To  expose  the  character  of  a  prophet  still  more,  a 
gourd  is  made  to  grow  up  in  the  night,  that  promises  him  an  agree- 
able shelter  from  the  heat  of  the  sun,  in  the  place  to  which  he  is 
retired  ;  and  the  next  morning  it  dies. 

Here  the  rage  of  the  prophet  becomes  excessive,  and  he  is 
ready  to  destroy  himself.  "  It  is  better,  said  he,  for  me  to  die  than 
to  live."  This  brings  on  a  supposed  expostulation  between  the 
Almighty  and  the  prophet ;  in  which  the  former  says,  "  Doest  thou 
well  to  be  angry  for  the  gourd  ?  And  Jonah  said,  I  do  well  to  be 
angry  even  unto  death  ;  Then  said  the  Lord,  Thou  hast  had  pity 
on  the  gourd,  for  which  thou  hast  not  laboured,  neither  madest  it 
to  grow,  ivhich  came  up  in  a  night,  and  perished  in  a  night ;  and 
should  not  I  spare  JS'inevah,  that  great  city,  in  which  are  more  than 
threescore  thousand  persons,  that  cannot  discern  between  their 
right  hand  and  their  left  ?" 

Here  is  both  the  winding  up  of  the  satire,  and  the  moral  of  the 
fable.  As  a  satire,  it  strikes  against  the  character  of  all  the  Bible- 
prophets,  and  against  all  the  indiscriminate  judgments  upon  men, 
women,  and  children,  with  which  this  lying  book,  the  Bible,  is 
crowded  ;  such  as  Noah's  flood,  the  destruction  of  the  cities  of 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  the  extirpation  of  the  Canaanites,  even  to 
sucking  infants,  and  women  with  child,  because  the  same  reflec- 
tion, that  there  are  more  than  threescore  thousand  persons  that  can-- 
not  discern  between  their  right  hand  and  their  left,  meaning  young 
children,  applies  to  all  their  cases.  It  satirizes  also  the  supposed 
partiality  of  the  Creator,  for  one  nation  more  than  for  another. 

As  a  moral,  it  preaches  against  the  malevolent  spirit  of  predic- 
tion ;  for  as  certainly  as  a  man  predicts  ill,  he  becomes  inclined  to 
jvish  it.  The  pride  of  having  his  judgment  right,  hardens  his 
heart,  till  at  last  he  beholds  with  satisfaction,  or  sees  with  disap- 
pointment, the  accomplishment  or  the  failure  of  his  predictions. 
This  book  ends  with  the  same  kind  of  strong  and  well-directed 
point  against  prophets,  prophecies,  and  indiscriminate  judgments, 
as  the  chapter  that  Benjamin  Franklin  made  for  the  Bible,  about 
Abraham  and  the  stranger,  ends  against  the  intolerant  spirit  of 
religious  persecution.     Thus  much  for  the  book  Jonah. 

Of  the  poetical  parts  of  the  Bible,  that  are  called  prophecies,  I 
have  spoken  in  the  former  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  and  already 
in  this  :  where  I  have  s..«d  that  the  word  jjrophet  is  the  Bible  worvl 


FART  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  123 

for  poet ;  and  that  the  flights  and  metaphors  of  those  poets,  many 
of  which  have  become  obscure  by  the  lapse  of  time  and  the 
change  of  circumstances,  have  been  ridiculously  erected  into 
things  called  prophecies,  and  applied  to  purposes  the  writers  never 
thought  of.  When  a  priest  quotes  any  of  those  passages,  he 
unriddles  it  agreeably  to  his  own  views,  and  imposes  that  expla- 
nation upon  his  congregation  as  the  meaning  of  the  writer.  The 
whore  of  Babylon  has  been  the  common  whore  of  all  the  priests, 
and  each  has  accused  the  other  of  keeping  the  strumpet ;  so  well 
do  they  agree  in  their  explanations. 

There  now  remain  only  a  few  books,  which  they  call  the  books 
of  the  lesser  prophets  ;  and  as  I  have  already  shown  that  the 
greater  are  impostors,  it  would  be  cowardice  to  disturb  the  repose 
of  the  little  ones.  Let  them  sleep,  then,  in  the  arms  of  their 
nurses,  the  priests,  and  both  be  forgotten  together. 

I  have  now  gone  through  the  Bible,  as  a  man  would  go  through 
a  wood  with  an  axe  on  his  shoulder,  and  fell  trees.  Here  they  lie  ; 
and  the  priests,  if  they  can,  may  replant  them.  They  may,  pre- 
haps,  stick  them  in  the  ground,  but  they  will  never  make  them 
grow. — I  pass  on  to  the  books  of  the  New  Testament. 


THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 

The  New  Testament,  they  tell  us,  is  founded  upon  the  pro- 
phecies of  the  Old  ;  if  so,  it  must  follow  the  fate  of  its  founda- 
tion. 

As  it  is  nothing  extraordinary  that  a  woman  should  be  with  child 
before  she  was  married,  and  that  the  son  she  might  bring  forth 
should  be  executed,  even  unjustly,  I  see  no  reason  for  not  believ- 
ing that  such  a  woman  as  Mary,  and  such  a  man  as  Joseph,  and 
Jesus,  existed  ;  their  mere  existence  is  a  matter  of  indifference 
about  which  there  is  no  ground  either  to  believe  or  to  disbelieve 
and  which  comes  under  the  con^mon  head  of,  It  may  be  so  ;  anu 
what  then  ?  The  probability,  however,  is,  that  there  were  such 
persons,  or  at  least  such  as  resembled  them  in  part  of  the  circum- 
stances, because  almost  all  romantic  stories  have  been  suggested 
by  some  actual  circumstance  ;  as  the  adventures  of  Robinson 
Crusoe,  not  a  word  of  which  is  true,  were  suggested  by  the  case 
of  Alexander  Selkirk. 


124  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II. 

It  is  not  then  li:e  existence,  or  non-existence,  of  the  persons 
that  I  trouble  myself  about ;  ilis  the  fable  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  told 
in  the  New  Testament,  and  the  wild  and  visionary  doctrine  raised 
thereon  against  which  I  contend.  The  story,  taking  it  as  it  is  told, 
is  blasphemously  obscene.  It  gives  an  account  of  a  young  woman 
engaged  to  be  married,  and  while  under  this  engagement,  she  is, 
to  speak  plain  language,  debauched  by  a  ghost,  under  the  impious 
pretence,  (Luke,  chap.  i.  ver.  35,)  that  "  the  Holy  Ghost  shall 
come  upon  thee,  and  the  power  of  the  Highest  shall  overshadoio 
thee.^^  Notwithstanding  which,  Joseph  afterwards  marries  her, 
cohabits  with  her  as  his  wife,  and  in  his  turn  rivals  the  ghost. 
This  is  putting  the  story  into  intelligible  language,  and  when  told 
in  this  manner,  there  is  not  a  priest  but  must  be  ashamed  to 
own  it* 

Obscenity  in  matters  of  faith,  however  wrapped  up,  is  always 
a  token  of  fable  and  imposture  ;  for  it  is  necessary  to  our  serious 
belief  in  God,  that  we  do  not  connect  it  with  stories  that  run,  as 
this  does,  mto  ludicrous  interpretations.  This  story  is,  upon  the 
face  of  it,  the  same  kind  of  story  as  that  of  Jupiter  and  Leda,  or 
Jupiter  and  Europa,  or  any  of  the  amorous  adventures  of  Jupi- 
ter ;  and  shows,  as  is  already  stated  in  the  former  part  of  the  Age 
of  Reason,  that  the  Christian  faith  is  built  upon  the  heathen  my- 
thology. 

As  the  historical  parts  of  the  New  Testament,  so  far  as  con- 
cerns Jesus  Christ,  are  confined  to  a  very  short  space  of  time, 
less  than  two  years,  and  all  within  the  same  country,  and  nearly 
to  the  same  spot,  the  discordance  of  time,  place,  and  circumstance, 
which  detects  the  fallacy  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
proves  them  to  be  impositions,  cannot  be  expected  to  be  found 
here  in  the  same  abundance.  The  New  Testament  compared 
with  the  Old,  is  like  a  farce  of  one  act,  in  which  there  is  not  room 
for  very  numerous  violations  of  the  unities.  There  are,  however, 
some  glaring  contradictions,  which,  exclusive  of  the  fallacy  of  the 
pretended  prophecies,  are  sufficient  to  show  the  story  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  be  false. 

I  lay  it  down  as  a  position  which  cannot  be  controverted,  first, 
that  the  agreement  of  all  the  parts  of  a  story  does  not  prove  that 

*  Mary,  the  supposed  virgin  mother  of  Jesus,  had  severil  other  children, 
sons  and  daughters.     See  Matt.  chap.  xiii.  55,  56. 


FAKT    n.]  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  19$ 

Story  to  be  true,  because  the  parts  may  agree,  and  the  Mhole  may 
be  false  ;  secondly,  that  the  disagreement  of  the  parts  of  a  story 
proves  the  whole  cannot  be  true.  The  agreement  does  not  prove 
truth,  but  the  disagreement  pioves  falsehood  positively 

The  history  of  Jesus  Christ  is  contained  in  the  tour  books  as- 
cribed to  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John.  The  first  chapter  of 
Matthew  begins  with  giving  a  genealogy  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  in 
the  third  chapter  of  Luke,  there  is  also  given  a  genealogy  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Did  these  two  agree,  it  would  not  prove  the  genealogy 
to  be  true,  because  it  might,  nevertheless,  be  a  fabrication  ;  but  as 
they  contradict  each  other  in  every  particular,  it  proves  falsehood 
absolutely.  If  Matthew  speaks  truth,  Luke  speaks  falsehood  ; 
and  if  Luke  speaks  truth,  Matthew  speaks  falsehood  ;  and  as  there 
is  no  authority  for  believing  one  more  than  the  other,  there  is  no 
authority  for  believing  either  ;  and  if  they  cannot  be  believed  even 
in  the  very  first  thing  they  say,  and  set  out  to  prove,  they  are  not 
entitled  to  be  believed  in  any  thing  they  say  afterwards.  Truth  is  an 
uniform  thing  ;  and  as  to  inspiration  and  revelation,  were  we  to 
admit  it,  it  is  impossible  to  suppose  it  can  be  contradictory. 
Either  then  the  men  called  apostles  were  impostors,  or  the  books 
ascribed  to  them  have  been  written  by  other  persons,  and  fathered 
upon  them,  as  is  the  case  in  the  Old  Testament. 

The  book  of  Matthew  gives,  chap.  i.  ver.  6,  a  genealogy  by 
name  from  David,  up  through  Joseph,  the  husband  of  Mary,  to 
Christ :  and  makes  there  to  be  ixventy-eight  generations.  The 
book  of  Luke  gives  also  a  genealogy  by  name  from  Christ,  through 
Joseph,  the  husband  of  Mary,  down  to  David,  and  makes  there  to 
he  forty-three  generations  ;  besides  which,  there  are  only  the  two 
names  of  David  and  Joseph  that  are  alike  in  the  two  lists.  1 
here  insert  both  genealogical  lists,  and  for  the  sake  of  perspicuity 
and  comparison  have  placed  them  both  in  the  same  direction,  that 
is,  from  Joseph  down  to  David. 

Genealogy,  according  to  Genealogy,  according  to 

Matthew.  Luke. 

Christ  Christ 

2  Joseph  2  Joseph 

3  Jacob  3  Heli 

4  Matthan  4  Matthat 
6  Eleazer  5  Levi 


126 


THE    ACE    OF    REASON. 


Genealogy,  acording  to 
Matthew. 

6  Eliud 

7  Achim 
S  Sadoo 
9  Azor 

10  Eliakim 

11  Abiud 

12  Zorobabel 

13  Salathiel 

14  Jechonias 

15  Josias 

16  Amon 

17  Manasses 

18  Ezekias 

19  Achaz 

20  Joatham 

21  Ozias 

22  Joram 

23  Josaphat 

24  Asa 

25  Abia 

26  Roboam 

27  Solomon 

28  David* 


[part  II 

Genealogy,  according  to 
Luke. 

6  Melchi 

7  Janna 

8  Joseph 

9  Mattathias 

10  Amos 

11  Naum 

12  Esli 

13  Nagge 

14  Maath 

15  Mattathias 

16  Semei 

17  Joseph 

18  Juda 

19  Joanna 

20  Rhesa 

21  Zorobabel 

22  Salathiel 

23  Neri 

24  Melchi 

25  Addi 

26  Cosam 

27  Elmodam 

28  Er 

29  Jose 

30  Eliezer 

31  Jorim 

32  Matthat 

33  Levi 

34  Simeon 

35  Juda 


*  From  the  birth  of  David  to  the  birth  of  Christ  is  upwards  of  1080  years, 
and  £is  the  Ufe-time  of  Christ  is  not  included,  there  are  but  27  full  generations. 
To  find,  therefore,  the  average  age  of  each  person  mentioned  in  the  list,  at  the 
time  his  first  son  was  born,  it  is  only  necessary  to  divide  108  by  27,  which 
gives  40  years  for  each  person.  As  the  life-time  of  man  was  then  but  of  the 
same  extern  it  is  now,  it  is  an  absurdity  to  suppose,  that  27  foUowmg  genera- 
tions should  all  be  old  bachelors,  before  they  married  ;  and  the  more  so,  when 
we  are  told  th'J.t  Solomon,  the  next  in  succession  to  David,  had  a  house  full  of 
wives  and  mwtresses  before  he  was  twenty-one  years  of  age.  So  far  from 
this  genealogy  being  a  solemn  truth,  it  is  not  even  a  reasonable  lie.  The  list  of 
I.uke  gives  about  twenty-six  years  for  the  average  age,  and  this  is  too  much. 


PART  II.1  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  127 

Genealogy,  according  to  Genealogy,  according  to 

Matthew.  Luke. 

36  Joseph 

37  Jonan 

38  Elakim 

39  Melea 

40  Menan 

41  Mattatha 

42  Nathan 

43  David 

Now,  if  these  men,  Matthew  and  Luke,  set  out  with  a  falsehood 
between  them  (as  these  two  accounts  show  they  do)  in  the  very 
commencement  of  their  history  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  whom,  and 
of  what  he  was,  what  authority  (as  I  have  before  asked)  is  there 
left  Jbr  believing  the  strange  things  they  tell  us  afterwards  1  If 
they  cannot  be  believed  in  their  account  of  his  natural  genealogy, 
how  are  we  to  believe  them,  when  they  tell  us,  he  was  the  son  of 
God,  begotten  by  a  ghost ;  and  that  an  angel  announced  this  in 
secret  to  his  mother?  If  they  lied  in  one  genealogy,  why  are  we 
to  believe  them  in  the  other  1  If  his  natural  be  manufactured, 
which  it  certainly  is,  why  are  not  we  to  suppose,  that  his  celestial 
genealogy  is  manufactured  also  ;  and  that  the  whole  is  fabulous  ? 
Can  any  man  of  serious  reflection  hazard  his  future  happiness 
upon  the  belief  of  a  story  naturally  impossible  ;  repugnant  to 
every  idea  of  decency ;  and  related  by  persons  already  detected 
of  falsehood?  Is  it  not  more  safe  that  we  stop  ourselves  at  the 
plain,  pure,  and  unmixed  belief  of  one  God,  which  is  deism,  than 
that  we  commit  ourselves  on  an  ocean  of  improbable,  irrational, 
indecent  and  contradictory  tales  ? 

The  first  question,  however,  upon  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, as  upon  those  of  the  Old,  is,  are  they  genuine  ?  Were  they 
written  by  the  persons  to  whom  they  are  ascribed  ?  for  it  is  upon 
this  ground  only,  that  the  strange  things  related  therein  have  been 
credited.  Upon  this  point,  there  is  no  direct  proof  for  or  against; 
and  all  that  this  state  of  a  case  proves,  is  doubtfulness  ;  and  doubt- 
fulness is  the  opposite  of  belief.  The  state,  therefore,  that  the 
books  are  in,  proves  against  themselves,  as  far  as  this  kind  of 
proof  can  go. 

But,  exclusive  of  this,  the  presumption  is,  that  the  books  called 
the  Evangelists,  and  ascribed  to  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John, 


128  THE    AGE    OF    REASON  [PAKT    II. 

were  not  written  by  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John  ;  and  that 
they  are  impositions.  The  disordered  state  of  the  history  in  these 
four  books,  the  silence  of  one  book  upon  matters  related  in  the 
other,  and  the  disagreement  that  is  to  be  found  among  them, 
implies,  that  they  are  the  production  of  some  unconnected  indi- 
viduals, many  years  after  the  things  they  pretend  to  relate,  each 
of  whom  made  his  own  legend  ;  and  not  the  writings  of  men 
living  intimately  together,  as  the  men  called  apostles  are  sup- 
posed to  have  done :  in  fine,  that  they  have  been  manufactured, 
as  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  have  been,  by  other  persons 
than  those  whose  names  they  bear. 

The  story  of  the  angel  announcing,  what  the  church  calls,  the 
immacidate  conception,  is  not  so  much  as  mentioned  in  the  books 
ascribed  to  Mark  and  John  ;  and  is  differently  related  in  Matthew 
and  Luke.  The  former  says,  the  angel  appeared  to  Joseph^  the 
latter  says,  it  was  to  Mary  ;  but  either,  Joseph  or  Mary,  was  the 
worst  evidence  that  could  have  been  thought  of;  for  it  was  others 
that  should  have  testified /or  them,  and  not  they  for  themselves. 
Were  any  girl  that  is  now  with  child  to  say,  and  even  to  swear  it, 
that  she  was  gotten  with  child  by  a  ghost,  and  that  an  angel  told 
her  so,  would  she  be  believed  ?  Certainly  she  would  not.  TMiy 
then  are  we  to  believe  the  same  thing  of  another  girl  whom  we 
never  saw,  told  by  nobody  knows  who,  nor  when,  nor  where  ] 
How  strange  and  inconsistent  is  it,  that  the  same  circumstance  that 
would  weaken  the  belief  even  of  a  probable  story,  should  be  given 
as  a  motive  for  believing  this  one,  that  has  upon  the  face  of  it 
every  token  of  absolute  impossibility  and  imposture. 

The  story  of  Herod  destroying  all  the  children  under  two  years 
old,  belongs  altogether  to  the  book  of  Matthew  :  not  one  of  the 
rest  mentions  any  thing  about  it.  Had  such  a  circumstance  been 
true,  the  universality  of  it  must  have  made  it  known  to  all  the 
writers  ;  and  the  thing  would  have  been  too  striking  to  have  been 
omitted  by  any.  This  writer  tells  us,  that  Jesus  escaped  this 
slaughter,  because  Joseph  and  Mary  were  warned  by  an  angel  to 
flee  with  him  into  Egypt ;  but  he  forgot  to  make  any  provision 
for  John  who  was  then  under  two  years  of  age.  John,  however, 
who  staid  behind,  fared  as  well  as  Jesus,  who  fled ;  and,  therefore, 
the  story  circumstantially  belies  itself. 

Not  any  two  of  these  writers  agree  in  reciting,  exactly  in  the 
same  words,  the  written  inscription,  short  as  it  is,  which  they  tell 


PART   II.]  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  129 

US  was  put  over  Christ  when  he  was  crucified  :  and  besides  this, 
Mark  says,  He  was  crucified  at  the  third  hour,  (nine  in  the  mora 
ing  ;)  and  John  says  it  was  the  sixth  hour,  (twelve  at  noon.*) 
The  inscription  is  thus  stated  in  those  books. 

Matthew — This  is  Jesus  the  king  of  the  Jews 

Mark The  king  of  the  Jews. 

Luke This  is  the  king  of  the  Jews. 

John  Jesus  of  Nazareth  king  of  the  Jews. 

We  may  infer  from  these  circumstances,  trivial  as  they  are,  that 
those  writers,  whoever  they  were,  and  in  whatever  time  they  lived, 
were  not  present  at  the  scene.  The  only  one  of  the  men,  called 
apostles,  who  appears  to  have  been  near  the  spot,  was  Peter,  and 
when  he  was  accused  of  being  one  of  Jesus'  followers,  it  is  said, 
(Matthew,  chap.  xxvi.  ver.  74,)  "  Then  Peter  began  to  curse  and 
to  sicear,  saying,  I  knoio  not  the  man  ;"  yet  we  are  now  called 
upon  to  believe  the  same  Peter,  convicted,  by  their  own  account, 
of  perjury.  For  what  reason,  or  on  what  authority,  shall  we  do 
this  1 

The  accounts  that  are  given  of  the  circumstances,  that  they  tell 
us  attended  the  crucifixion,  are  differently  related  in  those  four 
books. 

The  book  ascribed  to  Matthew  says,  "  There  was  darkness  over 
all  the  land  from  the  sixth  hour  unto  the  ninth  hour — that  the  veil 
of  the  temple  was  rent  in  twain  from  the  top  to  the  bottom — that 
there  loas  an  earthquake — that  the  rocks  rent — that  the  graves 
opened,  that  the  bodies  of  many  of  the  saints  that  slept  arose  and 
came  out  of  their  graves  after  the  resurrection,  and  tcent  into  the 
holy  city  and  appeared  unto  many."  Such  is  the  account  which 
this  dashing  writer  of  the  book  of  Matthew  gives  ;  but  m  which  he 
is  not  supported  by  the  writers  of  the  other  books. 

The  writer  of  the  book  ascribed  to  Mark,  in  detailing  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  crucifixion,  makes  no  mention  of  any  earth- 
quake, nor  of  the  rocks  rending,  nor  of  the  graves  opening,  nor  of 
the  dead  men  walking  out.  The  writer  of  the  book  of  Luke  is 
silent  also  upon  the  same  points.  And  as  to  the  writer  of  the 
book  of  John,  though  he  details  all  the  circumstances  of  the  cruci- 

*  According  to  John,  the  sentence  was  not  pussed  till  about  the  sixth  hour, 
(noon,)  and,  consequently,  the  execution  could  not  be  till  the  afternoon  ;  but 
Mark  says  expressly,  that  he  was  crucified  at  the  third  hour,  (nine  in  th« 
morning,)  chap.  xv.  25 ;  John  chap.  xix.  ver.  14. 

17 


130  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II. 

fixion  down  to  the  burial  of  Christ,  he  says  nothing  about  either 
the  darkness — the  veil  of  the  temple — the  earthquake — the 
rocks — the  graves — nor  the  dead  men. 

Now  if  it  had  been  true,  that  those  things  had  happened  ;  and 
if  the  writers  of  these  books  had  lived  at  the  time  they  did  happen, 
and  had  been  the  persons  they  are  said  to  be,  namely,  the  four 
men  called  apostles,  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  it  was  not 
possible  for  them,  as  true  historians,  even  without  the  aid  of 
inspiration,  not  to  have  recorded  them.  The  things,  supposing 
them  to  have  been  facts,  were  of  too  much  notoriety  not  to  have 
been  known,  and  of  too  much  importance  not  to  have  been  told. 
All  these  supposed  apostles  must  have  been  witnesses  of  the 
earthquake,  if  there  had  been  any ;  for  it  was  not  possible  for 
them  to  have  been  absent  from  it ;  the  opening  of  the  graves  and 
resurrection  of  the  dead  men,  and  their  walking  about  the  city  is  of 
greater  importance  than  the  earthquake.  An  earthquake  is 
always  possible,  and  natural,  and  proves  nothing  ;  but  this  open- 
ing of  the  graves  is  supernatural,  and  directly  in  point  to  their 
doctrine,  their  cause,  and  their  apostleship.  Had  it  been  true,  it 
would  have  filled  up  whole  chapters  of  those  books,  and  been  the 
chosen  theme  and  general  chorus  of  all  the  writers  ;  but  instead  of 
this,  little  and  trivial  things,  and  mere  prattling  conversations  of, 
he  said  this,  and  she  said  that,  are  often  tediously  detailed,  while 
this  most  important  of  all,  had  it  been  true,  is  passed  off  in  a  slov- 
enly manner  by  a  single  dash  of  the  pen,  and  that  by  one  writer 
only,  and  not  so  much  as  hinted  at  by  the  rest. 

It  is  an  easy  thing  to  tell  a  lie,  but  it  is  difficult  to  support  the 
he  after  it  is  told.  The  writer  of  the  book  of  Matthew  should 
have  told  us  who  the  saints  were  that  came  to  life  again,  and 
went  into  the  city,  and  what  became  of  them  afterwards,  and  who 
it  was  that  saw  them  ;  for  he  is  not  hardy  enough  to  say  he  saw 
them  himself  whether  they  came  out  naked,  and  all  in  natural 
buff,  he-saints  and  she-saints  ;  or  whether  they  came  full  dressed, 
and  whece  they  got  their  dresses  ;  whether  they  went  to  their 
former  habitations,  and  reclaimed  their  wives,  their  husbands,  and 
their  property,  and  how  they  were  received  ;  whether  they  entered 
ejectments  for  the  recovery  of  their  possessions,  or  brought  actions 
of  crJTO.  con.  against  the  rival  interlopers  ;  whether  they  remained 
on  earth,  and  fallewed  .their  forn;«.r  occupation  of  preaching  or 


PART  JI.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  131 

working  ;  or  whether  they  died  again,  or  went  back  to  their  graves 
ahve,  and  buried  themselves. 

Strange  indeed,  that  an  army  of  saints  should  return  to  life,  and 
nobody  know  who  they  were,  nor  who  it  was  that  saw  them,  and 
that  not  a  word  more  should  be  said  upon  the  subject,  nor  these 
saints  have  any  thing  to  tell  us  !  Had  it  been  the  prophets  who 
(as  we  are  told)  had  formerly  prophesied  of  these  things,  they 
must  have  had  a  great  deal  to  say.  They  could  have  told  us 
every  thing,  and  we  should  have  had  posthumous  prophecies, 
with  notes  and  commentaries  upon  the  first,  a  little  better  at  least 
than  we  have  now.  Had  it  been  Moses,  and  Aaron,  and  Joshua, 
and  Samuel,  and  David,  not  an  unconverted  Jew  had  remained  in 
all  Jerusalem.  Had  it  been  John  the  Baptist,  and  the  saints  of 
the  time  then  present,  every  body  would  have  known  them,  and 
they  would  have  out-preached  and  out-famed  all  the  other  apostles. 
But,  instead  of  this,  these  saints  are  made  to  pop  up,  like  Jonah's 
gourd  in  the  night,  for  no  purpose  at  all  but  to  wither  in  the 
morning.     Thus  much  for  this  part  of  the  stor3\ 

The  tale  of  the  resurrection  follows  that  of  the  crucifixion  ;  and 
in  this  as  well  as  in  that,  the  writers,  whoever  they  were,  disagree 
so  much,  as  to  make  it  evident  that  none  of  them  were  there. 

The  book  of  Matthew  states,  that  when  Christ  was  put  in  the 
sepulchre,  the  Jews  applied  to  Pilate  for  a  watch  or  a  guard  to  be 
placed  over  the  sepulchre,  to  prevent  the  body  being  stolen  by  the 
disciples  ;  and  that,  in  consequence  of  this  request,  the  sepulchre 
was  made  sure,  sealing  the  stone  that  covered  the  mouth,  and 
setting  a  watch.  But  the  other  books  say  nothing  about  this  ap- 
plication, nor  about  the  sealing,  nor  the  guard,  nor  the  watch ; 
and  according  to  their  accounts,  there  were  none.  Matthew, 
however,  follows  up  this  part  of  the  story  of  the  guard  or  the 
watch  with  a  second  part,  that  I  shall  notice  in  the  conclusion, 
as  it  serves  to  detect  the  fallacy  of  those  books. 

The  book  of  Matthew  continues  its  account,  and  says,  (chap, 
xxviii.  ver.  1,)  that  at  the  end  of  the  Sabbath,  as  it  began  to  dawn, 
towards  the  first  day  of  the  week,  came  Mary  Magdalene  and  the 
other  Mary,  to  see  the  sepulchre.  Mark  says  it  was  sun-rising, 
and  John  says  it  was  dark.  Luke  says  it  was  Mary  Magdalene 
and  Joanna,  and  Mary  the  mother  of  James,  and  other  women, 
that  came  to  the  sepulchre  ;  and  John  states,  that  Mary  Magda- 
lene came  alone.     So  well  do  they  agree  about  their  first  evi- 


132  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II 

dence!  tney  all,  however,  appear  to  have  known  most  about  Mary 
Magdalene ;  she  was  a  woman  of  a  large  acquaintance,  and  it 
was  not  an  ill  conjecture  that  she  might  be  upon  the  stroll. 

The  book  of  Matthew  goes  on  to  say,  (ver.  2,)  "  And  behold 
there  was  a  great  earthquake,  for  the  angel  of  the  Lord  descended 
from  heaven,  and  came  and  rolled  back  the  stone  from  the  door, 
and  sat  upon  it."  But  the  other  books  say  nothing  about  any 
earthquake,  nor  about  the  angel  rolling  back  the  stone,  and  sitting 
upon  it ;  and,  according  to  their  account,  there  was  no  angel 
sitting  there.  Mark  says  the  angel  was  within  the  sepulchre, 
sitting  on  the  right  side.  Luke  says  there  were  two,  and  they 
were  both  standing  up ;  and  John  says  they  were  both  sitting 
down,  one  at  the  head  and  the  other  at  the  feet. 

Matthew  says,  that  the  angel  that  was  sitting  upon  the  stone  on 
the  outside  of  the  sepulchre,  told  the  two  Marys  that  Christ  was 
risen,  and  that  the  women  went  away  quickly.  Mark  says,  that 
the  women,  upon  seeing  the  stone  rolled  away,  and  wondering  at 
it,  went  into  the  sepulchre,  and  that  it  was  the  angel  that  was 
sitting  within  on  the  right  side,  that  told  them  so.  Luke  says,  it 
was  the  two  angels  that  were  standing  up  ;  and  John  says,  it  was 
Jesus  Christ  himself  that  told  it  to  Mary  Magdalene  ;  and  that 
she  did  not  go  into  the  sepulchre,  but  only  stooped  down  and 
looked  in. 

Now,  if  the  writers  of  these  four  books  had  gone  into  a  court 
of  Justice  to  prove  an  alibi,  (for  it  is  of  the  nature  of  an  alibi  that 
IS  here  attempted  to  be  proved,  namely,  the  absence  of  a  dead 
body  by  supernatural  means,)  and  had  they  given  their  evidence 
in  the  same  contradictory  manner  as  it  is  here  given,  they  would 
have  been  in  danger  of  having  their  ears  cropt  for  perjury,  and 
would  have  justly  deserved  it.  Yet  this  is  the  evidence,  and  these 
are  the  books,  that  have  been  imposed  upon  the  world,  as  being 
given  by  divine  mspiration,  and  as  the  unchangeable  word  of 
God. 

The  writer  of  the  book  of  Matthew,  after  giving  this  account, 
relates  a  story  that  is  not  to  be  found  in  any  of  the  other  books, 
and  which  is  the  same  I  have  just  before  alluded  to. 

"  Now,"  says  he,  (that  is,  after  the  conversation  the  women  had 
had  with  the  angel  sitting  upon  the  stone,)  "  oehold  some  of  the 
watch  (meaning  the  watch  that  he  had  said  had  been  placed  over 
the  sepulchre)  came  into  the  city,  and  showed  unto  the  chief 


PART  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  133 

priests  all  the  things  that  were  done  ;  and  when  they  were  assem- 
bled with  the  elders  and  had  taken  counsel,  they  gave  large  money 
unto  the  soldiers,  saying,  Say  ye,  that  his  disciples  came  by  night, 
and  stole  him  away  while  we  slept ;  and  if  this  come  to  the  gov- 
ernor's ears,  we  will  persuade  him,  and  secure  you.  So  (hey  took 
the  money,  and  did  as  they  were  taught ;  and  this  saying  (that  his 
disciples  stole  him  away)  is  commonly  reported  among  the  Jews 
until  this  day." 

The  expression,  until  this  day,  is  an  evidence  that  the  book 
ascribed  to  Matthew  was  not  written  by  Matthew,  and  that  it  has 
been  manufactured  long  after  the  times  and  things  of  which  it  pre- 
tends to  treat ;  for  the  expression  implies  a  great  length  of  inter- 
vening time.  It  would  be  inconsistent  in  us  to  speak  in  this  man- 
ner of  any  thing  happening  in  our  own  time.  To  give,  therefore, 
intelligible  meaning  to  the  expression,  we  must  suppose  a  lapse  of 
some  generations  at  least,  for  this  manner  of  speaking  carries  the 
mind  back  to  ancient  time. 

The  absurdity  also  of  the  story  is  worth  noticing  ;  for  it  shows 
the  writer  of  the  book  of  Matthew  to  have  been  an  exceedingly 
weak  and  foolish  man.  He  tells  a  story  that  contradicts  itself  in 
point  of  possibility  ;  for  though  the  guard,  if  there  were  any,  might 
be  made  to  say  that  the  body  was  taken  away  while  they  were 
asleep,  and  to  give  that  as  a  reason  for  their  not  having  prevented 
it,  that  same  sleep  must  also  have  prevented  their  knowing  how, 
and  by  whom  it  was  done  ;  and  yet  they  are  made  to  say,  that  it 
was  the  disciples  who  did  it.  Were  a  man  to  tender  his  evidence 
of  something  that  he  should  say  was  done,  and  of  the  manner  of 
doing  it,  and  of  the  person  who  did  it  while  he  was  asleep,  and 
could  know  nothing  of  the  matter,  such  evidence  could  not  be  re- 
ceived ;  it  will  do  well  enough  for  Testament  evidence,  but  not 
for  any  thing  where  truth  is  concerned. 

I  come  now  to  that  part  of  the  evidence  in  those  books,  that 
respects  the  pretended  appearance  of  Christ  after  this  pretended 
resurrection. 

The  writer  of  the  book  of  Matthew  relates,  that  the  angel  that 
was  sitting  on  the  stone  at  the  mouth  of  the  sepulchre,  said  to  the 
two  Marys,  chap,  xxviii.  ver.  7,  "  Behold  Christ  is  gone  before 
you  into  Galilee,  there  ye  shall  see  him ;  lo,  I  have  told  you.'"  And 
the  same  writer  at  the  two  next  verses,  (8,  9,)  makes  Christ  him- 
self to  speak  to  the  same  purpose  to  these  women  immediately 


134  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II. 

after  the  angel  had  told  it  to  them,  and  that  they  ran  quickly  to  tell 
it  to  the  disciples  ;  and  at  the  16th  verse  it  is  said,  ^'■Then  the  eleven 
disciples  went  aivay  into  Galilee,  into  a  mountain  were  Jesus  had 
appointed  them  :  and,  when  they  saw  him,  they  worshipped  him." 

But  the  writer  of  the  book  of  John  tells  us  a  story  very  differ- 
ent to  this  ;  for  he  says,  chap.  xx.  ver.  19,  "  Then  the  game  day 
it  evening,  being  the  first  day  of  the  iveek,  (that  is,  the  same  day 
.nat  Christ  is  said  to  have  risen,)  ivhen  the  doors  were  shut,  where 
the  disciples  ivere  assembled,  for  fear  of  the  Jews,  came  Jesus  and 
stood  in  the  midst  of  them. 

According  to  Matthew  the  eleven  were  marching  to  Galilee,  to 
meet  Jesus  in  a  mountain,  by  his  own  appointment,  at  the  very 
time  when,  according  to  John,  they  were  assembled  in  another 
place,  and  that  not  by  appointment  but  in  secret,  for  fear  of  the 
Jews. 

The  writer  of  the  book  of  Luke  contradicts  that  of  Matthew 
more  pointedly  than  John  does  ;  for  he  says  expressly,  that  the 
meeting  was  in  Jerusalem  the  evening  of  the  same  day  that  he 
(Christ)  rose,  and  that  the  eleven  were  there.  See  Luke,  chap, 
xxiv.  ver.  13,  33. 

Now,  it  is  not  possible,  unless  we  admit  these  supposed  disci- 
ples the  right  of  wilful  lying,  that  the  writer  of  these  books  could 
be  any  of  the  eleven  persons  called  disciples  :  for  if,  according  to 
Matthew,  the  eleven  went  into  Galilee  to  meet  Jesus  in  a  mountain 
by  his  own  appointment,  on  the  same  day  that  he  is  said  to  have 
risen,  Luke  and  John  must  have  been  two  of  that  eleven  ;  yet  the 
writer  of  Luke  says  expressly,  and  John  implies  as  much,  that  the 
meeting  was  that  same  day,  in  a  house  in  Jerusalem  ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  if,  according  to  Luke  and  John,  the  eleven  were  as- 
sembled in  a  house  in  Jerusalem,  Matthew  must  have  been  one  of 
that  eleven  ;  yet  Matthew  says,  the  meeting  was  in  a  mountain  in 
Galilee,  and  consequently  the  evidence  given  in  those  books  de- 
stroys each  other. 

The  writer  of  the  book  of  Mark  says  nothing  about  any  meet- 
ing in  Galilee  ;  but  he  says,  chap.  xvi.  ver.  12,  that  Christ,  after 
his  resurrection,  appeared  in  another  form  to  two  of  them,  as  they 
walked  into  the  country,  and  that  these  two  told  it  to  the  residue 
who  would  not  believe  them.  Luke  also  tells  a  story,  in  wliich 
he  keeps  Christ  employed  the  whole  of  the  day  of  this  pretended 
resurrection,  until  the  evening,  and  which  totally  invalidates  the 


PART  II. J  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  135 

account  of  going  to  the  mountain  in  Galilee.  He  says,  that  two 
of  them,  without  saying  which  two,  went  that  same  day  to  a  village 
called  Emmaus,  threescore  furlongs  (seven  miles  and  a  half)  from 
Jerusalem,  and  that  Christ,  in  disguise,  went  with  them,  and  staid 
with  them  unto  the  evening,  and  supped  with  them,  and  then 
vanished  out  of  their  sight,  and  re-appeared  that  same  evening,  at 
the  meeting  of  the  eleven  in  Jerusalem. 

This  is  the  contradictory  manner  in  which  the  evidence  of  this 
pretended  re-appearance  of  Christ  is  stated ;  the  only  point  in 
which  the  writers  agree,  is  the  skulking  privacy  of  that  re-appear- 
ance ;  for  whether  it  was  in  the  recess  of  a  mountain  in  Galilee, 
or  in  a  shut-up  house  in  Jerusalem,  it  was  still  skulking.  To 
what  cause  then  are  v,e  to  assign  this  skulking ?  On  the  one 
hand,  it  is  directly  repugnant  to  the  supposed  or  pretended  end — 
that  of  convincing  the  world  that  Christ  was  risen ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  have  asserted  the  publicity  of  it,  would  have  exposed 
the  writers  of  those  books  to  public  detection,  and,  therefore,  they 
have  been  under  the  necessity  of  making  it  a  private  affair. 

As  to  the  account  of  Christ  being  seen  by  more  than  five  hun- 
dred at  once,  it  is  Paul  only  who  says  it,  and  not  the  five  hundred 
who  say  it  for  themselves.  It  is,  therefore,  the  testimony  of  but 
one  man,  and  that  too  of  a  man,  who  did  not,  according  to  the 
same  account,  believe  a  word  of  the  matter  himself,  at  the  time  it 
is  said  to  have  happened.  His  evidence,  supposing  him  to  have 
been  the  writer  of  the  15th  chapter  of  Corinthians,  where  this 
account  is  given,  is  like  that  of  a  man  who  comes  into  a  court  of 
justice  to  swear,  that  what  he  had  sworn  before  is  false.  A  man 
may  often  see  reason,  and  he  has,  too,- always  the  right  of  chang- 
mg  his  opinion  ;  but  this  liberty  does  not  extend  to  matters  of 
fact. 

I  now  come  to  the  last  scene,  that  of  the  ascension  into  heaven. 
Here  all  fear  of  the  Jews,  and  of  every  thing  else,  must  necessa- 
rily have  been  out  of  the  question  :  it  was  that  which,  if  true,  was 
to  seal  the  whole  ;  and  upon  which  the  reality  of  the  future  mis- 
sion of  the  disciples  was  to  rest  for  proof.  "Words,  whether 
declarations  or  promises,  that  passed  in  private,  either  in  the  recess 
of  a  mountain  in  Galilee,  or  in  a  shut-up  house  in  Jerusalem,  even 
supposing  them  to  have  been  spoken,  could  not  be  evidence  in 
public  ;  it  was  therefore  necessary  that  this  last  scene  should 
preclude  the  possibility  of  denial  and  dispute  ;  and  that  it  should 


136  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART  II. 

be,  as  I  have  stated  in  the  former  part  of  the  Jige  of  Reason,  as 
public  and  as  visible  as  the  sun  at  noon  day :  at  least  it  ought  to 
have  been  as  public  as  the  crucifixion  is  reported  to  have  been. 
But  to  come  to  the  point. 

In  the  first  place  the  writer  of  the  book  of  Matthew  does  not 
say  a  syllable  about  it ;  neither  does  the  writer  of  the  book  of 
John.  Ttiis  being  the  case,  is  it  possible  to  suppose  that  those 
writers,  who  affect  to  be  even  minute  in  other  matters,  would 
have  been  silent  upon  this,  had  it  been  true  ?  The  writer  of  the 
book  of  Mark  passes  it  off  in  a  careless,  slovenly  manner,  with  a 
single  dash  of  the  pen,  as  if  he  was  tired  of  romancing,  or 
ashamed  of  the  story.  So  also  does  the  writer  of  Luke.  And 
even  between  these  two,  there  is  not  an  apparent  agreement,  as  to 
the  place  where  this  final  parting  is  said  to  have  been. 

The  book  of  Mark  says,  that  Christ  appeared  to  the  eleven  as 
they  sat  at  meat ;  alluding  to  the  meeting  of  the  eleven  at  Jeru- 
salem :  he  then  states  the  conversation  that  he  says  passed  at  that 
meeting ;  and  immediately  after  says,  (as  a  school-boy  would 
finish  a  dull  story,)  "  So  then,  after  the  Lord  had  spoken  unto 
them,  he  was  received  up  into  heaven,  and  sat  on  the  right  hand 
of  God."  But  the  writer  of  Luke  says,  that  the  ascension  was 
from  Bethany ;  that  he  (Christ)  led  them  out  a^  far  as  Bethany, 
and  ivas  parted  from  them  there,  and  tvas  carried  up  into  heaven. 
So  also  was  Mahomet :  and,  as  to  Moses,  the  apostle  Jude  says, 
ver.  9,  Tliat  Michael  and  the  devil  disputed  about  his  body. 
While  we  believe  such  fables  as  these,  or  either  of  them,  we 
believe  unworthily  of  the  Almighty. 

I  have  now  gone  through  the  examination  of  the  four  books 
ascribed  to  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John  ;  and  when  it  is 
considered  that  the  whole  space  of  time  from  the  crucifixion  to 
what  is  called  the  ascension,  is  but  a  few  days,  apparently  not 
more  than  three  or  four,  and  that  all  the  circumstances  are  said 
to  have  happened  nearly  about  the  same  spot,  Jerusalem  ;  it  is, 
I  believe,  impossible  to  find,  in  any  story  upon  record,  so  many 
and  such  glaring  absurdities,  contradictions,  and  falsehoods,  as  are 
in  those  books.  They  are  more  numerous  and  striking  than  1 
had  any  expectation  of  finding,  when  I  began  this  examination, 
and  far  more  so  than  I  had  any  idea  of  when  I  wrote  the  former  nart 
of  the  Jlge  of  Reason.  I  had  then  neither  Bible  nor  Testameni  to 
refer  to,  nor  could  I  procure  any.     My  own  situation,  even  as  to 


TART  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  137 

existence,  was  becoming  every  day  more  precarious  ;  and  as  I  was 
willing  to  leave  something  behind  me  upon  the  subject,  I  was 
obliged  to  be  quick  and  concise.  The  quotations  I  then  made 
were  from  memory  only,  but  they  are  correct ;  and  the  opinions 
I  have  advanced  in  that  work  are  the  effect  of  the  most  clear  and 
long-established  conviction — that  the  Bible  and  the  Testament 
are  impositions  upon  the  world — that  the  fall  of  man — the  account 
of  Jesus  Christ  being  the  Son  of  God,  and  of  his  dying  to  appease 
the  wrath  of  God,  and  of  salvation  by  that  strange  means,  are  all 
fabulous  inventions,  dishonourable  to  the  wisdom  and  power  of 
the  Almighty — that  the  only  true  religon  is  Deism,  by  which  I  then 
meant,  and  now  mean,  the  belief  of  one  God,  and  an  imitation  of 
his  moral  character,  or  the  practice  of  what  are  called  moral 
virtues — and  that  it  was  upon  this  only  (so  far  as  religion  is  con- 
cerned) that  I  rested  all  my  hopes  of  happiness  hereafter.  So 
say  I  now — and  so  help  me  God. 

But  to  return  to  the  subject. — Though  it  is  impossible,  at  this 
distance  of  time,  to  ascertain  as  a  lact  who  were  the  vvriters  of 
those  four  books  (and  this  alone  is  sufficient  to  hold  them  in  doubt, 
and  where  we  doubt  wc  do  not  believe)  it  is  not  difficult  to  ascer- 
tain negatively  that  they  were  not  written  by  the  persons  to  whom 
they  are  ascribed.  The  contradictions  in  those  books  demon 
strate  two  things  : 

First,  that  the  writers  cannot  have  been  eye-witnesses  and  ear- 
witnesses  of  the  matters  they  relate,  or  they  would  have  related 
them  without  those  contradictions  ;  and,  consequently,  that  the 
books  have  not  been  written  by  the  persons  called  apostles,  who 
are  supposed  to  have  been  witnesses  of  this  kind. 

Secondly,  that  the  writers,  whoever  they  were,  have  not  acted 
in  concerted  imposition,  but  each  writer  separately  and  indi- 
vidually for  himself,  and  without  the  knowledge  of  the  other. 

The  same  evidence  that  applies  to  prove  the  one,  applies 
equally  to  prove  both  cases  ;  that  is,  that  the  books  were  not  writ- 
ten by  the  men  called  apostles,  and  also  that  they  are  not  a 
concerted  imposition.  As  to  inspiration,  it  is  altogether  out  of  the 
question  ;  we  may  as  well  attempt  to  unite  truth  and  falsehood, 
as  inspiration  and  contradiction. 

If  four  men  are  eye-witnesses  and  ear-witnesses  to  a  scene,  they 
will,  without  any  concert  between   them,  agree  as  to  time  and 
place,  when  and  where  that  scene  happened.    Their  individual 
18 


138  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II. 

knowledge  of  the  thing,  each  one  knowing  it  /or  himself,  renders 
concert  totally  unnecessary ;  the  one  will  not  say  it  was  in  a 
mountain  in  the  country,  and  the  other  at  a  house  in  town  :  the 
one  will  not  say  it  was  at  sun-rise,  and  the  other  that  it  was  dark. 
For  in  whatever  place  it  was,  at  whatever  time  it  was,  they 
know  it  equally  alike. 

And,  on  the  other  hand,  if  four  men  concert  a  story,  they  will 
make  their  separate  relations  of  that  story  agree,  and  corrobo- 
rate with  each  other  to  support  the  whole.  That  concert  supplies 
the  want  of  fact  in  the  one  case,  as  the  knowledge  of  the  fact 
supercedes,  in  the  other  case,  the  necessity  of  a  concert.  The 
same  contradictions,  therefore,  that  prove  there  has  been  no  con- 
cert, prove,  also,  that  the  reporters  had  no  knowledge  of  the  fact, 
(or  rather  of  that  which  they  relate  as  a  fact,)  and  detect  also  the 
falsehood  of  their  reports.  Those  books,  therefore,  have  neither 
been  written  by  the  men  called  apostles,  nor  by  impostors  in  con- 
cert.    How  then  have  they  been  written  1 

I  am  not  one  of  those  who  are  fond  of  believing  there  is  much 
of  that  which  is  called  wilful  lying,  or  lying  originally  ;  except  in 
the  case  of  men  setting  up  to  be  prophets,  as  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment :  for  prophesying  is  lying  professionally.  In  almost  all 
other  cases,  it  is  not  difficult  to  discover  the  progress,  by  which 
even  simple  supposition,  with  the  aid  of  credulity,  will,  in  time, 
grow  into  a  lie,  and  at  last  be  told  as  a  fact ;  and  whenever  we 
can  find  a  charitable  reason  for  a  thing  of  this  kind,  we  ought 
not  to  indulge  a  severe  one. 

The  story  of  Jesus  Christ  appearing  after  he  was  dead,  is  the 
story  of  an  apparition,  such  as  timid  imaginations  can  always  cre- 
ate in  vision,  and  credulity  believe.  Stories  of  this  kind  had  been 
told  of  the  assassination  of  Julius  Ceesar,  not  many  years  before, 
and  they  generally  have  their  origin  in  violent  deaths,  or  in  the  ex- 
ecution of  innocent  persons.  In  cases  of  this  kind,  compassion 
lends  its  aid,  and  benevolently  stretches  the  story.  It  goes  on  a 
little  and  a  little  further,  till  it  becomes  a  most  certain  truth.  Once 
start  a  ghost,  and  credulity  fills  up  the  history  of  its  life  and 
assigns  the  cause  of  its  appearance  !  one  tells  it  one  way,  another 
another  way,  till  there  are  as  many  stories  about  the  ghost  and 
about  the  proprietor  of  the  ghost,  as  there  are  about  Jesus  Christ 
in  these  four  books. 


PART  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  139 

The  story  of  the  appearance  of  Jesus  Christ  is  told  witb  that 
Btrange  mixture  of  the  natural  and  impossible,  that  distinguishes 
legendary  tale  from  fact.  He  is  represented  as  suddenly  coming 
in  and  going  out  when  the  doors  are  shut,  and  of  vanishing  out  of 
sight,  and  appearing  again,  as  one  would  conceive  of  an  unsub- 
stantial vision  ;  then  again  he  is  hungry,  sits  down  to  meat,  and 
eats  his  supper.  But  as  those  who  tell  stories  of  this  kind,  never 
provide  for  all  the  cases,  so  it  is  here  :  they  have  told  us,  that 
when  he  arose  he  left  his  grave  clothes  behind  him  ;  but  they  have 
forgotten  to  provide  other  clothes  for  him  to  appear  in  afterwards, 
or  tell  to  us  what  he  did  with  them  when  he  ascended  ;  whether  he 
stripped  all  off,  or  went  up  clothes  and  all.  In  the  case  of  Elijah, 
they  have  been  careful  enough  to  make  him  throw  dow  n  his  man- 
tle ;  how  it  happened  not  to  be  burnt  in  the  chariot  of  fire,  they 
also  have  not  told  us.  But  as  imagination  supplies  all  deficiencies 
of  this  kind,  we  may  suppose  if  we  please,  that  it  was  made  of 
salamander's  wool. 

Those  who  are  not  much  acquainted  with  ecclesiastical  history, 
may  suppose  that  the  book  called  the  New  Testament  has  existed 
ever  since  the  time  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  they  suppose  that  the 
books  ascribed  to  Moses  have  existed  ever  since  the  time  of 
Moses.  But  the  fact  is  historically  otherwise  ;  there  w-as  no  such 
book  as  the  New  Testament  till  more  than  three  hundred  years 
after  the  time  that  Christ  is  said  to  have  lived. 

At  what  time  the  books  ascribed  to  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and 
John,  began  to  appear,  is  altogether  a  matter  of  uncertainty. 
There  is  not  the  least  shadow  of  evidence  of  who  the  persons 
were  that  wrote  them,  nor  at  what  time  they  were  written ;  and  they 
might  as  well  have  been  called  by  the  names  of  any  of  the  other 
supposed  apostles,  as  by  the  names  they  are  now  called.  The 
originals  are  not  in  the  possession  of  any  Christian  Church  exist- 
ing, any  more  than  the  two  tables  of  stone  written  on,  they  pretend, 
by  the  finger  of  God,  upon  mount  Sinai,  and  given  to  Moses,  are 
in  the  possession  of  the  Jews.  And  even  if  they  were,  there  is  no 
possibility  of  proving  the  hand  writing  in  either  case.  At  the  time 
those  books  were  written  there  was  no  printing,  and  consequently 
there  could  be  no  publication,  otherwise  than  by  written  copies, 
which  any  man  might  make  or  alter  at  pleasure,  and  call  them 
originals.  Can  we  suppose  it  is  consistent  with  the  wisdon^  of  the 
Almighty,  to  commit  himself  and  his  will  to  man,  upon  such  pro- 


140  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II. 

carious  means  as  these,  or  that  it  is  consistent  we  should  pin  our 
faith  upon  such  uncertainties  ?  We  cannot  make  nor  alter,  nor 
even  imitate  so  much  as  one  blade  of  grass  that  he  has  made, 
and  yet  we  can  make  or  alter  ivords  of  God  as  easily  as  words 
of  rrjan.* 

About  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  time  that  Christ  is 
said  to  have  lived,  several  writings  of  the  kind  I  am  speaking  of, 
were  scattered  in  the  hands  of  divers  individuals  ;  and  as  the 
church  had  begun  to  form  itself  into  an  hierarchy,  or  church  go- 
vernment, with  temporal  powers,  it  set  itself  about  collecting  them 
into  a  code,  as  we  now  sec  them,  called  The  jVett)  Testament. 
They  decided  by  vote,  as  I  have  before  said  in  the  former  part  of 
the  ^ge  of  Reason,  which  of  those  writings,  out  of  the  collection 
they  had  made,  should  be  the  icord  of  God,  and  which  should  not. 
The  Rabbins  of  the  Jews  had  decided,  by  vote,  upon  the  books  of 
the  Bible  before. 

As  the  object  of  the  church,  as  is  the  case  in  all  national  estab 
lishments  of  churches,  v,as  power  and  revenue,  and  terror  the 
means  it  used  :  it  is  consistent  to  suppose,  that  the  most  miracu- 
lous and  wonderful  of  the  writings  they  had  collected  stood  the 
best  chance  of  being  voted.  And  as  to  the  authenticity  of  the  books, 
the  vote  stands  in  the  place  of  it ;  for  it  can  be  traced  no  higher. 

Disputes,  however,  ran  high  among  the  people  then  calling 
themselves  Christians  ;  not  only  as  to  points  of  doctrine,  but  as  to 
the  authenticity  of  the  books.  In  the  contest  between  the  persons 
called  St.  Augustine  and  Fauste,  about  the  year  400,  the  latter 
says,  "  The  books  called  the  Evangelists  have  been  composed 
long  after  the  times  of  the  apostles,  by  some  obscure  men,  who, 
fearing  that  the  world  would  not  give  credit  to  their  relation  of 
matters  of  which  they  could  not  be  informed,  have  published  them 
under  the  names  of  the  apostles  ;    and  which  are   so  full    of 

*  The  former  part  of  the  »?g-c  of  Reason  has  not  been  published  two  years, 
and  there  is  already  an  expession  in  it  that  is  not  mine.  The  expression  is  : 
The  book  of  Luke  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  one  voice  only.  It  may  be  true, 
but  it  is  not  I  that  have  said  it.  Some  person  who  might  know  the  circum- 
stance, has  added  it  in  a  note  at  the  bottom  of  the  page  of  some  of  the  editions, 
printed  either  in  England  or  in  America  ;  and  the  printers,  after  that,  have 
erected  it  into  the  body  of  the  work,  and  made  me  the  author  of  it.  If  this  has 
happened  within  such  a  short  space  of  time,  notwithstanding  the  aid  of  print- 
ing, which  prevents  the  alteration  of  copies  individually  ;  what  may  not  have 
happened  in  much  greater  length  of  tnne,  when  there  was  no  printing,  and 
when  any  man  who  could  write  could  make  a  written  copy,  and  call  it  an 
original,  by  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John. 


PART  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  141 

sottishness  and  discoidant  relations,  that  there  is  neither  agree- 
ment nor  connexion  between  them." 

And  in  another  place,  addressing  himself  to  the  advocates  of 
those^  books,  as  being  the  word  of  God,  he  says,  "  It  is  thus  that 
your  predecessors  have  inserted  in  the  scriptures  of  our  Lord, 
many  things,  which  though  they  carry  his  name,  agree  not  with 
his  doctrines.  This  is  not  surprising,  since  that  we  have  often 
proved  that  these  things  have  not  been  written  by  himself,  nor  by 
his  apostles,  but  that  for  the  greatest  part  they  are  founded  upon 
tales,  upon  vague  reports,  and  put  together  by  I  know  not  what, 
half  Jews,  with  but  little  agreement  between  them  ;  and  which 
they  have  nevertheless  published  under  the  names  of  the  Apostles 
of  our  Lord,  and  have  thus  attributed  to  them  their  own  errors  and 
their  /tes."* 

The  reader  will  see  by  these  extracts,  that  the  authenticity  of 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament  was  denied,  and  the  books 
treated  as  tales,  forgeries,  and  lies,  at  the  time  they  were  voted  to 
be  the  word  of  God.  But  the  interest  of  the  church,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  faggot,  bore  down  the  opposition,  and  at  last 
suppressed  all  investigation.  Miracles  followed  upon  miracles,  if 
we  will  believe  them,  and  men  were  taught  to  say  they  believed 
whether  they  believed  or  not.  But  (by  way  of  throwing  in  a 
thought)  the  French  Revolution  has  excommunicated  the  church 
from  the  power  of  working  miracles  :  she  has  not  been  able,  with 
the  assistance  of  all  her  saints,  to  work  o7ie  miracle  since  the 
revolution  began  ;  and  as  she  never  stood  in  greater  need  than 
now,  we  may,  without  the  aid  of  devination,  conclude,  that  all  hei 
former  miracles  were  tricks,  and  lies."}* 

*  I  have  taken  these  two  extracts  from  Boulano;er's  Life  of  Paul,  written  m 
French ;  Boulanger  has  quoted  them  from  the  writings  of  Augustine  against 
Fauste,  to  which  he  refers. 

t  Boulanger  in  his  Life  of  Paul,  has  collected  from  the  ecclesiastical  histories, 
and  the  writings  of  the  fathers  as  they  are  called,  several  matters  which  show 
the  opinions  that  prevailed  among  the  different  sects  of  Christians,  at  the  time 
the  Testament,  as  we  now  see  it,  was  voted  to  be  the  word  of  God.  The  fol 
lowing  extracts  are  from  the  second  chapter  of  that  work. 

"TheMarchionists,  (a  Christian  sect,)  assured  that  the  evangelists  were 
filled  with  falsities.  The  Manicheens,  who  formed  a  very  numerous  sect  at  the 
commencement  of  Christianity,  rejected  as  false,  all  the  J^eto  Testament;  and 
showed  other  writings  quite  different  that  they  gave  for  authentic.  The  Co- 
rinthians, like  the  Marcionists,  admitted  not  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  The 
Encratites,  and  the  Sevenians,  adopted  neither  the  acts  nor  the  Epistles  of  Paul. 
Chrysostome,  in  a  homily  which  he  made  upon  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  says, 
tKat  in  his  time,  about  the  year  400,  many  people  knew  nothing  either  of  the 


142  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PAUT  II. 

When  we  consider  the  lapse  of  more  than  three  hundred  years 
intervening  between  the  time  that  Christ  is  said  to  have  lived  and 
the  time  the  new  Testament  was  formed  into  a  book,  we  must 
see,  even  without  the  assistance  of  historical  evidence,  the  exceed- 
ing uncertainty  there  is  of  its  authenticity.  The  authenticity  of 
the  book  of  Homer,  so  far  as  regards  the  authorship,  is  much 
better  established  than  that  of  the  New  Testament,  though  Homer 
is  a  thousand  years  the  most  ancient.  It  was  only  an  exceeding 
good  poet  that  could  have  written  the  book  of  Homer,  and,  there- 
fore, few  men  only  could  have  attempted  it  ;  and  a  man  capable 
of  doing  it  would  not  have  thrown  away  his  own  fame  by  giving  it 
to  another.  In  like  manner,  there  were  but  few  that  could  have 
composed  Euclid's  Elements,  because  none  but  an  exceeding 
good  geometrician  could  have  been  the  author  of  that  work. 

But  with  respect  to  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  particu- 
larly such  parts  as  tell  us  of  the  resurrection  and  ascension  of 
Christ,  any  person  who  could  tell  a  story  of  an  apparition,  or  of  a 
mail's  walking,  could  have  made  such  books  ;  for  the  story  is 
most  wretchedly  told.  The  chance,  therefore,  of  forgery  in  the 
Testament,  is  millions  to  one  greater  than  in  the  case  of  Homer 
or  Euclid.  Of  the  numerous  priests  or  parsons  of  the  present 
day,  bishops  and  all,  every  one  of  them  can  make  a  sermon,  or 
translate  a  scrap  of  Latin,  especially  if  it  has  been  translated  a 
thousand  times  before ;  but  is  there  any  amongst  them  that  can 
write  poetry  like  Homer,  of  science  like  Euclid  ;  the  sum  total  of 
a  parson's  learning,  with  very  few  exceptions,  is  a  6  ab,  and  hie, 
hcec,  hoc  ;  and  their  knowledge  of  science  is  three  times  one  is 
three  ;  and  this  is  more  than  sufficient  to  have  enabled  them,  had 
they  lived  at  the  time,  to  have  written  all  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament. 

As  the  opportunities  of  forgery  were  greater,  so  also  was  the 
inducement.  A  man  could  gain  no  advantage  by  writing  under 
the  name  of  Homer  or  Euclid  ;  if  he  could  write  equal  to  them,  it 

author  or  of  the  book.  St.  Irene,  who  lived  before  that  time,  reports  that  the 
Valeiuinians,  hke  several  oilier  sects  of  the  Christians,  accused  the  Scriptures 
of  being  filled  with  imperfections,  errors  and  contrrJictions.  The  EbionUes  oi 
Nazareens,  who  were  the  first  Christians,  rejected  all  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  and 
rej^arded  him  as  an  impostor.  They  report  among  other  things,  that  he  was 
originally  a  Pagan,  that  he  came  to  Jerusalem,  where  he  lived  some  time  ;  and 
that  having  a  mind  to  marry  the  daughter  of  the  higji  priest,  he  caused  him- 
self to  be  circumcised ;  but  that  not  being  able  to  olitain  her,  he  quarreHed 
witli  the  Jews,  and  wrote  against  circumcision,  and  against  the  observation  o' 
the  sabbath,  and  against  all  the  legal  ordinances." 


PART    II.]  THE    AGE    OF    UEASON.  143 

would  be  better  that  he  wrote  under  his  own  name  ;  if  inferior,  hp 
could  not  succeed.  Pride  would  prevent  the  former,  and  impos- 
sibility the  latter.  But  with  respect  to  such  books  as  compose  the 
New  Testament,  all  the  inducements  were  on  the  side  of  forgery. 
The  best  immagined  history  that  could  have  been  made,  at  the 
distance  of  two  or  three  hundred  years  after  the  time,  could  not  have 
passed  for  an  original  under  the  name  of  the  real  writer  ;  the  only 
chance  of  success  lay  in  forgery,  for  the  church  wanted  pretence 
for  its  new  doctrine,  and  truth  and  talents  were  out  of  the  question. 

But  as  it  is  not  uncommon  (as  before  observed)  to  relate 
stories  of  persons  walking  aher  they  are  dead,  and  of  ghosts  and 
apparitions  of  such  as  have  fallen  by  some  violent  or  extraor- 
dinary means  ;  and  as  the  people  of  that  day  were  in  the  habit  of 
believing  such  things,  and  of  the  appearance  of  angels,  and  also 
of  devils,  and  of  their  getting  into  people's  insides,  and  shaking 
them  like  a  fit  of  an  ague,  and  of  their  being  cast  out  agam  as  if  by 
an  emetic — (Mary  Magdalene,  the  book  of  Mark  tells  us,  had 
brought  up,  or  been  brought  to  bed  of  seven  devils;)  it  was  no- 
thing extraordinary  that  some  story  of  this  kind  should  get  abroad 
of  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ,  and  become  afterwards  the 
foundation  of  the  four  books  ascribed  to  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke, 
and  John.  Each  writer  told  the  tale  as  he  heard  it,  or  there- 
abouts, and  gave  to  his  book  the  name  of  the  saint  or  the  apostle 
whom  tradition  had  given  as  the  eye-witness.  It  is  only  upon  this 
ground  that  the  contradictions  in  those  books  can  be  accounted 
for ;  and  if  this  be  not  the  case,  they  are  downright  impositions, 
lies,  and  forgeries,  without  even  the  apology  of  credulity. 

That  they  have  been  written  by  a  sort  of  half  Jews,  as  the  fore- 
going quotations  mention,  is  discernable  enough.  The  frequent 
references  made  to  that  chief  assassin  and  impostor  Moses,  and 
to  the  men  called  prophets,  establishes  this  point ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  church  has  complimented  the  fraud,  by  admitting 
the  Bible  and  the  Testament  to  reply  to  each  other.  Between  the 
Christian  Jew  and  the  Christian  Gentile,  the  thing  called  a  pro- 
phecy, and  the  thing  prophesied  ;  the  type  and  the  thing  typified  ; 
the  sign  and  the  thing  signified,  have  been  industriously  rum- 
maged up,  and  fitted  together  like  old  locks  and  pick-lock  keys. 
The  story  foolishly  enough  told  of  Eve  and  the  serpent,  and 
naturally  enough  as  to  the  enmity  between  men  and  serpents,  (for 
the  serpent  always  bites  about  the  heel,  because  it  cannot  reach 


144  THE    AGE    OF    UEASON.  [PART    II. 

higher ;  and  the  man  always  knocks  the  serpent  about  the  head^ 
as  the  most  effectual  way  to  prevent  its  biting  ;*)  this  foolish 
story,  I  say,  has  been  made  into  a  prophecy,  a  type,  and  a  promise 
to  begin  with  ;  and  the  lying  imposition  of  Isaiah  to  Ahaz,  That 
a  virgin  shall  conceive  and  bear  a  son,  as  a  sign  that  Ahaz 
should  conquer,  when  the  event  was  that  he  was  defeated,  (as 
already  noticed  in  the  observations  on  the  book  of  Isaiah,)  has 
been  perverted,  and  made  to  serve  as  a  winder-up. 

Jonah  and  the  whale  are  also  made  into  a  sign  or  a  type. 
Jonah  is  Jesus,  and  the  whale  is  the  grave  :  for  it  is  said,  (and 
they  have  made  Christ  to  say  it  of  himself,)  Matt.  chap.  xvii.  v.  40, 
"  For  as  Jonah  was  Ihree  days  and  three  nights  in  the  whaleV 
belly,  so  shall  the  Son  of  man  be  three  daijs  and  three  nights  in 
the  heart  of  the  earth."  But  it  happens,  awkwardly  enough,  that 
Christ,  according  to  their  own  account,  was  but  one  day  and  two 
nights  in  the  grave  ;  about  36  hours,  instead  of  72  :  that  is,  the 
Friday  night,  the  Saturday,  and  the  Saturday  night ;  for  they  say 
he  was  up  on  the  Sunday  morning  by  sun-rise,  or  before.  But  as 
this  fits  q\iite  as  well  as  the  bite  and  the  kick  in  Genesis,  or  the 
virgin  and  her  son  in  Isaiah,  it  will  pass  in  the  lump  of  orthodox 
things.  Thus  much  for  the  historical  part  of  the  Testament  and 
its  evidences. 

Epistles  of  Paul — The  epistles  ascribed  to  Paul,  being  four 
teen  in  number,  almost  fill  up  the  remaining  part  of  the  Tester- 
ment.  Whether  those  epistles  were  written  by  the  person  to 
whom  they  are  ascribed,  is  a  matter  of  no  great  importance,  since 
the  Avriter,  whoever  he  was,  attempts  to  prove  his  doctrine  by 
argument.  He  does  not  pretend  to  have  been  witness  to  any  of 
the  scenes  told  of  the  resurrection  and  the  ascension ;  and  he 
declares  that  he  had  not  believed  them. 

The  story  of  his  being  struck  to  the  ground  as  he  was  journey- 
ing to  Damascus,  has  nothing  in  it  miraculous  or  extraordinary  •, 
he  escaped  with  life,  and  that  is  more  than  many  others  have 
done,  who  have  been  struck  with  lightning ;  and  that  he  should 
loose  his  sight  for  three  days,  and  be  unable  to  eat  or  drink  du- 
ring that  time,  is  nothing  more  than  is  common  in  such  con- 
ditions. His  companions  that  were  with  him  appear  not  to  have 
suffered  in  the  same  manner,  for  they  were  well  enough  to  lead 

♦  "  It  shall  bruise  thy  head,  and  thou  shall  bruise  his  heel."  Genesis,  chap. 
uL  ver.  15. 


PART  II.]  THE    AGE    OF    KEASON  145 

him  the  remainder  of  the  journey ;  neither  did  they  pretend  to 
have  seen  any  vision. 

The  character  of  the  person  called  Paul,  according  to  the  ac- 
counts given  of  him,  has  in  it  a  great  deal  of  violence  and  fana- 
ticism ;  he  had  persecuted  with  as  much  heat  as  he  preached 
afterwards  ;  the  stroke  he  had  received  had  changed  his  thinking, 
without  altering  his  constitution  ;  and,  either  as  a  Jew  or  a  Chris- 
tianj  he  was  the  same  zealot.  Such  men  are  never  good  moral 
evidences  of  any  doctrine  they  preach.  They  are  always  in  ex- 
tremes, as  well  of  actions  as  of  belief. 

The  doctrine  he  sets  out  to  prove  by  argument,  is  the  resur- 
rection of  the  same  body :  and  he  advances  this  as  an  evidence 
of  immortality.  But  so  much  will  men  differ  in  their  manner  oi 
thinking,  and  in  the  conclusions  they  draw  from  the  same  pre- 
mises, that  this  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  same  body,  so 
far  from  being  an  evidence  of  immortality,  appears  to  me  to  fur- 
nish an  evidence  against  it ;  for  if  I  had  already  died  in  this  body, 
and  am  raised  again  in  the  same  body  in  which  I  have  died,  it  is 
presumptive  evidence  that  I  shall  die  again.  That  resurrection 
no  more  secures  me  against  the  repetition  of  dying,  than  an  ague 
fit,  when  past,  secures  me  against  another.  To  believe,  there- 
fore, in  immortality,  I  must  have  a  more  elevated  idea  than  is  con- 
tained in  the  gloomy  doctrine  of  the  resurrection. 

Besides,  as  a  matter  of  choice,  as  well  as  of  hope,  I  had  rather 
have  a  better  body  and  a  more  convenient  form  than  the  present. 
Every  animal  in  the  creation  excels  us  in  something.  The  wing- 
ed insects,  without  mentioning  doves  or  eagles,  can  pass  over 
more  space  and  with  greater  ease,  in  a  few  minutes,  than  man  can 
in  an  hour.  The  glide  of  the  smallest  fish,  in  proportion  to  its 
bulk,  exceeds  us  in  motion,  almost  beyond  comparison,  and  with- 
out weariness.  Even  the  sluggish  snail  can  ascend!  from  the  bot- 
tom of  a  dungeon,  where  a  man,  by  the  want  of  that  ability, 
would  perish ;  and  a  spider  can  launch  itself  from  the  top,  as  a 
playful  amusement.  The  personal  powers  of  man  are  so  limitedv 
and  his  heavy  frame  so  little  constructed  to  extensive  enjoyment, 
that  there  is  nothing  to  induce  us  to  wish  the  opinion  of  Paul 
to  be  true.  It  is  too  little  for  the  magnitude  of  the  scene — too 
mean  for  the  sublimity  of  the  subject. 

But  all  other  arguments  apart,  the  conscious7iess  of  existence 
is  the  onlv  conceiveable  idea  we  can  have  of  another  Hfe^and  the 
19 


146  THE    AGE    OF    REASON. 

continuance  of  that  consciousness  is  immortality.  The  coii- 
sciousness  of  existence,  or  the  knowing  that  we  exist,  is  not 
necessarily  confined  to  the  same  form,  nor  to  the  same  matter, 
even  in  this  life. 

We  have  not  in  all  cases  the  same  form,  nor  in  any  case  the 
same  matter,  that  composed  our  bodies  twenty  or  thirty  years 
ago  ;  and  yet  we  are  conscious  of  being  the  same  persons.  Even 
legs  and  arms,  which  make  up  almost  half  the  human  frame,  are 
not  necessary  to  the  coi  sciousness  of  existence.  These  may 
be  lost  or  taken  away,  and  the  full  consciousness  of  existence 
remain  ;  and  were  their  place  supplied  by  wings,  or  other  ap- 
pendages, we  cannot  conceive  that  it  could  alter  our  consciousness 
of  existence.  In  short,  we  know  not  how  much,  or  rather  how 
little,  of  our  composition  it  is,  and  how  exquisitely  fine  that  little  is, 
that  creates  in  us  this  consciousness  of  existence  ;  and  all  be- 
yond that  is  like  the  pulp  of  a  peach,  distinct  and  separate  from 
the  vegetative  speck  in  the  kernel. 

Who  can  say  by  what  exceeding  fine  action  of  fine  matter  it  is 
that  a  thought  is  produced  in  what  we  call  the  mind  ?  and  yet 
that  thought  when  produced,  as  I  now  produce  the  thought  I  am 
writing,  is  capable  of  becoming  immortal,  and  is  the  only  pro- 
duction of  man  that  has  that  capacity. 

Statues  of  brass  and  marble  will  perish  ;  and  statues  made  in 
imitation  of  them  are  not  the  same  statues,  nor  the  same  work- 
manship, any  more  than  the  copy  of  a  picture  is  the  same  picture. 
But  print  and  reprint  a  thought  a  thousand  times  over,  and  that 
with  materials  of  any  kind — carve  it  in  wood,  or  engrave  it  on 
stone,  the  thought  is  eternally  and  identically  the  same  thought  in 
€very  case.  It  has  a  capacity  of  unimpaired  existence,  unaffected 
by  change  of  matter,  and  is  essentially  distinct,  and  of  a  nature 
different  from  every  thing  else  that  we  know  or  can  conceive.  If 
then  the  thing  produced  has  in  itself  a  capacity  of  being  immortal 
it  is  more  than  a  token  that  the  power  that  produced  it,  which  is. 
the  self-same  thing  as  consciousness  of  existence,  can  be  immor- 
tal also  ;  and  that  is  independently  of  the  matter  it  was  first 
connected  with,  as  the  thought  is  of  the  printing  or  writing  it  first 
appeared  in.  The  one  idea  is  not  more  difficult  to  believe  than  the 
other,  and  we  can  see  that  one  is  true. 

That  the  consciousness  of  existence  is  not  dependent  on  the 
earae  form  or  the  same  matter,  is  demonstrated  to  our  senses  in 


PART  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  147 

the  works  of  the  creation,  as  far  as  our  senses  are  capable  of  re- 
ceiving that  demonstration.  A  very  numerous  part  of  the  animal 
creation  preaches  to  us,  far  better  than  Paul,  the  belief  of  a  life 
hereafter.  Their  little  life  resembles  an  earth  and  a  heaven — a 
present  and  a  future  state  :  and  comprises,  if  it  may  be  so  ex- 
pressed, immortality  in  miniature. 

The  most  beautiful  parts  of  the  creation  to  our  eye  are  the 
winged  insects,  and  they  are  not  so  originally.  They  acquire 
that  form,  and  that  inimitable  brilliancy  by  progressive  changes. 
The  slow  and  creeping  caterpillar-worm  of  to  day,  passes  in  a 
few  days  to  a  torpid  figure,  and  a  state  resembling  death  ;  and  in 
the  next  change  comes  forth  in  all  the  miniature  magnificence  of 
life,  a  splendid  butterfly.  No  resemblance  of  the  former  creature 
remains ;  every  thing  is  changed  ;  all  his  powers  are  new,  and 
life  is  to  him  another  thing.  We  cannot  conceive  that  the  con- 
sciousness of  existence  is  not  the  same  in  this  state  of  the  animal 
as  before  ;  why  then  must  I  believe  that  the  resurrection  of  the 
same  body  is  necessary  to  continue  to  me  the  consciousness  of 
existence  hereafter. 

In  the  former  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  I  have  called  the 
creation  the  only  true  and  real  word  of  God  ;  and  this  instance,  of 
this  text,  in  the  book  of  creation,  not  only  shows  to  us  that  this 
thmg  may  be  so,  but  that  it  is  so  ;  and  that  the  belief  of  a  future 
state  is  a  rational  belief,  founded  upon  facts  visible  in  the  creation  : 
for  it  is  not  more  difficult  to  believe  that  we  shall  exist  hereafter 
in  a  better  state  and  form  than  at  present,  than  that  a  worm 
«should  become  a  butterfly,  and  quit  the  dunghill  for  the  atmos- 
phere, if  we  did  not  know  it  as  a  fact. 

As  to  the  doubtful  jargon  asciibed  to  Paul  in  the  15th  chapter 
of  1  Corinthians,  which  makes  part  of  the  burial  service  of  some 
Christian  sectaries,  it  is  as  destitute  of  meaning  as  the  tolling  of 
the  bell  at  the  funeral  ;  it  explains  nothing  to  the  understanding — 
it  illustrates  nothing  to  the  imagination,  but  leaves  the  reader  to 
find  any  meaning  if  he  can.  "  All  flesh,  (says  he,)  is  not  the  same 
flesh.  There  is  one  flesh  of  men  ;  another  of  beasts  ;  another 
of  fishes  ;  and  another  of  birds."  And  what  then? — nothing.  A 
cook  could  have  said  as  much.  "  There  are  also,  (says  he,)  bodies 
celestial  and  bodies  terrestial ;  the  glory  of  the  celestial  is  one, 
and  the  glory  of  the  terrestial  is  another."  And  what  then? — 
nothing.     And  what  is  the  difference  ?  nothing  that  he  has  told. 


148  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II 

"  There  is,  (says  he,)  one  glory  of  the  sun,  and  another  glory  ol 
the  moon,  and  another  glory  of  the  stars."  And  what  then  ? — 
nothing;  except  that  he  says  that  one  star  differeth  ft^om  another 
star  in  glory,  instead  of  distance ;  and  he  might  as  well  have  told 
us,  that  the  moon  did  not  shine  so  bright  as  the  sun.  All  this  is 
nothing  better  than  the  jargon  of  a  conjuror,  who  picks  up  phrases 
he  does  not  understand,  to  confound  the  credulous  people  who 
come  to  have  their  fortunes  told.  Priests  and  conjurors  are  of 
the  same  trade. 

Sometimes  Paul  affects  to  be  a  naturalist  and  to  prove  his  system 
of  resurrection  from  the  principles  of  vegetation.  "  Thou  fool, 
(says  he,)  that  which  thou  sowest  is  not  quickened  except  it  die." 
To  which  one  might  reply  in  his  own  language,  and  say,  Thou 
fool,  Paul,  that  which  thou  sowest  is  not  quickened  except  it  die 
not ;  for  the  grain  that  dies  in  the  ground  never  does,  nor  can 
vegetate.  It  is  only  the  living  grains  that  produce  the  next  crop. 
But  the  metaphor,  in  any  point  of  view,  is  no  simile.  It  is  suc- 
cession, and  not  resurrection. 

The  progress  of  an  animal  from  one  state  of  being  to  another, 
as  from  a  worm  to  a  butterfly,  applies  to  the  case  ;  but  this  of  a 
grain  does  not,  and  shows  Paul  to  have  been  what  he  says  ot 
others,  a  fool. 

Whether  the  fourteen  epistles  ascribed  to  Paul  were  Avritten  by 
him  or  not,  is  a  matter  of  indifference  ;  they  are  either  argumenta- 
tive or  dogmatical ;  and  as  the  argument  is  defective,  and  the 
dogmatical  part  is  merely  presumptive,  it  signifies  not  who  wrote 
them.  And  the  same  may  be  said  for  the  remaining  parts  of  the 
Testament.  It  is  not  upon  the  epistles,  but  upon  what  is  called 
the  gospel,  contained  in  the  four  books  ascribed  to  Matthew, 
Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  and  upon  the  pretended  prophecies,  that 
the  theory  of  the  church,  calling  itself  the  Christian  church, 
is  founded.  The  epistles  are  dependent  upon  those,  and  must 
follow  their  fate  ;  for  if  the  story  of  Jesus  Christ  be  fabulous,  all 
reasoning  founded  upon  it  as  a  supposed  truth,  must  fall  with  it. 

We  know  from  history,  that  one  of  the  principal  leaders  of  this 
church,  Athanasius,  lived  at  the  time  the  New  Testament  was 
formed  ;*  and  we  know  also,  from  the  absurd  jargon  he  has  left 
us  under  the  name  of  a  creed,  the  character  of  the  men  who 
formed  the  New  Testament ;  and  we  know  also  from  the  same 

*  Athaoasius  died,  occordixig  to  tlie  church  chronology,  in  the  year  371. 


PART  11.]  THE  AGE  Of    REASON.  149 

history,  that  the  authcrrticity  of  the  books  of  which  it  is  composed 
was  denied  at  the  time.  It  was  upon  the  vote  of  such  as 
Athanasi us,  that  the  Testament  was  decreed  to  be  the  word  of 
God ;  and  nothing  can  present  to  us  a  more  strange  idea  than 
that  of  decreeing  the  word  of  God  by  vote.  Those  who  rest  their 
faith  upon  such  authority,  put  man  in  the  place  of  God,  and  have 
no  foundation  for  future  happiness  ;  credulity,  however,  is  not  a 
crime ;  but  it  becomes  criminal  by  resisting  conviction.  It  is 
strangling  in  the  womb  of  the  conscience  the  efforts  it  makes' to 
ascertain  truth.  We  should  never  force  belief  upon  ourselves  in 
any  thing. 

I  here  close  the  subject  on  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New. 
The  evidence  I  have  produced  to  prove  them  forgeries,  is  ex- 
tracted from  the  books  themselves,  and  acts,  like  a  two  edged 
sword,  either  way.  If  the  evidence  be  denied,  the  authenticity 
of  the  scriptures  is  denied  with  it ;  for  it  is  scripture  evidence  : 
and  if  the  evidence  be  admitted,  the  authenticity  of  the  books  is 
disproved.  The  contradictory  impossibilities  contained  in  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  New,  put  them  in  the  case  of  a  man  who 
swears  for  and  against.  Either  evidence  convicts  him  of  perjury, 
and  equally  destroys  reputation. 

Should  the  Bible  and  the  Testament  hereafter  fall,  it  is  not  I 
that  have  been  the  occasion.  I  have  done  no  more  than  extracted 
the  evidence  from  that  confused  mass  of  matter  with  which  it  is 
mixed,  and  arranged  that  evidence  in  a  point  of  light  to  be  clearly 
seen  and  easily  comprehended  ;  and,  having  done  this,  I  leave  the 
reader  to  judge  for  himself,  as  I  have  judged  for  myself. 


CONCLUSION. 

In  the  former  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  I  have  spoken  of  the 
three  frauds,  mTjstery,  miracle,  and  prophecy  ;  and  as  I  have  seen 
nothing  in  any  of  the  answers  to  that  work,  that  in  the  least  effects 
what  I  have  there  said  upon  those  subjects,  I  shall  not  encumber 
this  Second  Part  with  additions  that  are  not  necessary. 

I  have  spoken  also  in  the  same  work  upon  what  is  called  rere/a- 
tion,  and  have  shown  the  absurd  misapplication  of  that  term  to  the 
books  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  ;  for  certainly  revela- 


150  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    H. 

lion  ia  out  of  the  question  in  reciting  any  thing  of  which  man  has 
been  the  actor  or  the  witness.  That  which  a  man  has  done  or  seen, 
needs  no  revelation  to  tell  him  he  has  done  it,  or  seen  it ;  for  he 
knows  it  already  ;  nor  to  enable  him  to  tell  it,  or  to  write  it.  It  is 
ignorance,  or  imposition,  to  apply  the  term  revelation  in  such 
cases  ;  yet  the  Bible  and  Testament  are  classed  under  this  frau- 
dulent description  of  being  all  revelation. 

Revelation  then,  so  far  as  the  term  has  relation  between  God 
and  man,  can  only  be  applied  to  something  Avhich  God  reveals  of 
his  tvill  to  man  ;  but  though  the  power  of  the  Almighty  to  make 
such  a  communication,  is  necessarily  admitted,  because  to  that 
power  all  things  are  possible,  yet,  the  thing  so  revealed  (if  any 
thing  ever  was  revealed,  and  which,  by  the  bye,  it  is  impossible  to 
prove)  is  revelatioa  to  the  person  only  io  xvhom  it  is  made.  His 
account  of  it  to  another  is  not  revelation  ;  and  whoever  puts  faith 
in  that  acccount,puts  it  in  the  man  from  whom  the  account  comes; 
and  that  man  may  have  been  deceived,  or  may  have  dreamed  it ; 
or  he  may  be  an  impostor,  and  may  lie.  There  is  no  possible  cri- 
terion whereby  to  judge  of  the  truth  of  what  he  tells  :  for  even  the 
morality  of  it  would  be  no  proof  of  revelation.  In  all  such  cases, 
the  proper  answer  would  be,  "  When  it  is  revealed  io  me,  1  will 
believe  it  to  be  a  revelation  ;  bid  it  is  not,  and  cannot  be  incumbent 
upon  me  to  believe  it  to  be  revelation  before  ;  neither  is  it  proper 
that  I  should  take  the  word  of  a  man  as  the  ivord  of  God,  and  put 
man  in  the  place  of  God."  This  is  the  manner  in  which  I  have 
spoken  of  revelation  in  the  former  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason  ;  and 
which,  while  it  reverentially  admits  revelation  as  a  possible  thing, 
because,  as  before  said,  to  the  Almighty  all  things  are  possible,  it 
prevents  the  imposition  of  one  man  upon  another,  and  precludes 
the  wicked  use  of  pretended  revelation. 

But  though,  speaking  for  myself,  I  thus  admit  the  possibility  of 
revelation,  I  totally  disbelieve  that  the  Almighty  ever  did  com- 
municate any  thing  to  man,  by  any  mode  of  speech,  in  any  lan- 
guage, or  by  any  kind  of  vision,  or  appearance,  or  by  any  means 
which  our  senses  are  capable  of  receiving,  otherwise  than  by  the 
universal  display  of  himself  in  the  works  of  the  creation,  and  by 
that  repugnance  we  feel  in  ourselves  to  bad  actions,  and  disposi- 
tion to  do  good  ones. 

The  most  detestable  wickedness,  the  most  horrid  cruelties,  and 
the  greatest  miseries,  that  have  afflicted  the  human  race,  have  had 


FART  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  UEASON.  151 

.heir  origin  in  this  thing  called  revelation,  or  revealed  religion.  It 
has  been  the  most  dishonorable  belief  against  the  character  of  the 
Divinity,  the  most  destructive  to  morality,  and  the  peace  and  hap- 
piness of  man,  that  ever  was  propagated  since  man  began  to  exist. 
It  is  better,  far  better,  that  we  admitted,  if  it  were  possible,  a 
thousand  devils  to  roam  at  large,  and  to  preach  publicly  the  doc- 
trine of  devils,  if  there  were  any  such,  than  that  we  permitted  one 
such  imposter  and  monster  as  Moses,  Joshua,  Samuel,  and  the 
Bible  prophets,  to  come  with  the  pretended  word  of  God  in  his 
mouth,  and  have  credit  among  us. 

T\'Tience  arose  all  the  horrid  assassinations  of  whole  nations  of 
men,  women,  and  infants,  with  which  the  Bible  is  filled  :  and  the 
bloody  persecutions,  and  tortures  unto  death,  and  religious  wars, 
that  since  that  time  have  laid  Europe  in  blood  and  ashes  ;  whence 
arose  they,  but  from  this  impious  thing  called  revealed  religion, 
and  this  monstrous  belief,  that  God  has  spoken  to  man  ?  The  lies 
of  the  Bible  have  been  the  cause  of  the  one,  iand  the  lies  of  the 
Testament  of  the  other. 

Some  Christians  pretend,  that  Christianity  was  not  established 
by  the  sword  ;  but  of  what  period  of  time  do  they  speak?  It  was 
impossible  that  twelve  men  could  begin  with  the  sword  ;  they  had 
not  the  power  ;  but  no  sooner  were  the  professors  of  Christianity 
sufficiently  powerful  to  employ  the  sword,  than  they  did  so,  and 
the  stake  and  the  faggot  too  ;  and  Mahomet  could  not  do  it  sooner. 
By  the  same  spirit  that  Peter  cut  off  the  ear  of  the  high  priest's 
servant  (if  the  story  be  true)  he  would  have  cut  off  his  head,  and 
the  head  of  his  master,  had  he  been  able.  Besides  this,  Chris- 
tianity grounds  itself  originally  upon  the  Bible,  and  the  Bible  was 
established  altogether  by  the  sword,  and  that  in  the  worst  use  of  it ; 
not  to  terrify,  but  to  extirpate.  The  Jews  made  no  converts  ;  they 
butchered  all.  The  Bible  is  the  sire  of  the  Testament,  and  both 
are  called  the  word  of  God.  The  Christians  read  both  books  ;  the 
ministers  preach  from  both  books  ;  and  this  thing  called  Chris- 
tianity is  made  up  of  both.  It  is  then  false  to  say  that  Christianity 
vvras  not  established  by  the  sword. 

The  only  sect  that  has  not  persecuted  are  the  Quakers  ;  and  the 
only  reason  that  can  be  given  for  it  is,  that  they  are  rather  Deists 
than  Christians.  They  do  not  believe  much  about  Jesus  Christ, 
and  they  call  the  Scriptures  a  dead  letter.  Had  they  called  them 
by  a  worse  name,  they  had  been  nearer  the  truth. 


152  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART    II. 

It  is  incumbent  on  every  man  who  reverences  the  character  ot 
vhe  Creator,  and  who  \yishes  to  lessen  the  catalogue  of  artificial 
miseries,  and  remove  the  cause  that  has  sown  persecutions  thick 
among  mankind,  to  expel  all  ideas  of  revealed  religion  as  a  danger 
ous  heresy,  and  an  impious  fraud.  What  is  it  that  we  have  learned 
from  this  pretended  thing  called  revealed  religion  1 — nothing  that 
IS  useful  to  man,  and  every  thing  that  is  dishonourable  to  his  Ma- 
imer. What  is  it  the  Bible  teaches  us  ? — rapine,  cruelty,  and  mur- 
der. What  is  it  the  Testament  teaches  us  1 — to  believe  that  the 
Almighty  committed  debauchery  with  a  woman,  engaged  to  be 
married  !  and  the  belief  of  this  debauchery  is  called  faith. 

As  to  the  fragments  of  morality  that  are  irregularly  and  thinly 
scattered  in  those  books,  they  make  no  part  of  this  pretended  thing 
revealed  religion.  They  are  the  natural  dictates  of  conscience, 
and  the  bonds  by  which  society  is  held  together,  and  without  which 
it  cannot  exist ;  and  are  nearly  the  same  in  all  religions,  and  in  all 
societies.  The  Testament  teaches  nothing  new  upon  this  subject, 
and  where  it  attempts  to  exceed,  it  becomes  mean  and  ridiculous. 
The  doctrine  of  not  retaliating  injuries,  is  much  better  expressed 
in  proverbs,  which  is  a  collection  as  well  from  the  Gentiles  as  the 
Jews,  than  it  is  in  the  Testament.  It  is  there  said,  Proverbs  xxv 
ver.  21,  "  If  thine  enemy  be  hiingi-y,  give  him  bread  to  eat ;  and  ij 
he  be  thirsty,  give  himttater  to  drink  ;*"  but  when  it  is  said,  as  in 
the  Testament,  ^^  If  a  man  smite  thee  on  the  right  cheek,  turn  to 
him  the  other  also  ;"  it  is  assassinating  the  dignity  of  forbearance . 
and  sinking  man  into  a  spaniel. 

Loving  enemies,  is  another  dogma  of  feigned  morality,  and  has 
besides  no  meaning.  It  is  incumbent  on  man,  as  a  moralist,  that 
he  does  not  revenge  an  injury ;  and  it  is  equally  as  good  in  a  po- 
litical sense,  for  there  is  no  end  to  retaliation,  each  retaliates  on 

*  According  to  what  is  called  Christ's  sermon  on  the  mount,  in  the  book  of 
Matthew,  where,  amon^  some  other  good  tilings,  a  great  deal  of  this  feigned 
morality  is  introduced,  it  is  there  expressly  said,  that  the  doctrine  of  forbear- 
ance, or  of  not  retaliating  injuries,  %oas  not  any  part  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Jews  ; 
but  as  this  doctrine  is  founded  in  proverbs,  it  must,  according  to  that  state- 
ment, have  been  copied  from  the  Gentiles,  from  whom  Christ  had  learned  it. 
Those  men,  whom  Jewish  and  Christian  idolators  have  abusively  called  hea- 
thens, had  much  better  and  clearer  ideas  of  justice  and  morality,  than  are  to 
be  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  so  far  as  it  is  Jewish  ;  or  in  the  New.  The 
answer  of  Solon  on  the  question,  "  Which  is  the  most  perfect  popular  govern- 
ment," has  never  been  exceeded  by  any  man  since  his  time,  as  containing  a 
maxim  of  political  morality.  "  That,"  says  he,  "  where  the  least  injury  dont 
to  the  meanest  individual,  is  considered  as  an  insult  on  the  whole  constitution.^' 
€olon  lived  about  500  years  before  Christ. 


PART  II. J  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  153 

Uie  other,  and  calls  it  justice  ;  but  to  love  in  proportion  to  the  in- 
jury, if  it  could  be  done,  would  be  to  offer  a  premium  for  crime. 
Besides  the  word  enemies  is  too  vague  and  general  to  be  used  in  a 
moral  maxim,  which  ought  always  to  be  clear  and  defined,  like  a 
proverb.  If  a  man  be  the  enemy  of  another  frcm  mistake  and 
prejudice,  as  in  the  case  of  religious  opinions,  and  sometimes  in 
politics,  that  man  is  different  to  an  enemy  at  heart  with  a  criminal 
intention  ;  and  it  is  incumbent  upon  us,  and  it  contributes  also  to 
our  own  tranquillity,  that  we  put  the  best  construction  upon  a  thing 
that  it  will  bear.  But  even  this  erroneous  motive  in  him,  makes 
no  motive  for  love  on  the  other  part ;  and  to  say  that  we  can  love 
voluntarily,  and  without  a  motive,  is  morally  and  physically  impos- 
sible. 

Morality  is  injured  by  prescribing  to  it  duties,  that,  in  the  first 
place,  are  impossible  to  be  performed ;  and,  if  they  could  be, 
would  be  productive  of  evil ;  or,  as  before  said,  be  premiums  for 
crime.  The  maxim  of  doing  as  loe  would  he  done  unto,  does  not 
include  this  strange  doctrine  of  loving  enemies  ;  for  no  man  ex- 
pects to  be  loved  himself  for  his  crime  or  for  his  enmity. 

Those  who  preach  this  doctrine  of  loving  their  enemies,  are  in 
general  the  greatest  persecutors,  and  they  act  consistently  by  so 
doing  ;  for  the  doctrine  is  hypocritical,  and  it  is  natural  that  hypo- 
crisy should  act  the  reverse  of  what  it  preaches.  For  my  own 
part,  I  disown  the  doctrine,  and  consider  it  as  a  feigned  or  fabu- 
lous morality  ;  yet  the  man  does  not  exist  that  can  say  I  have 
persecuted  him,  or  any  man  or  any  set  of  men,  either  in  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  or  in  the  French  Revolution  ;  or  that  I  have,  in 
any  case,  returned  evil  for  evil.  But  it  is  not  incumbent  on  man 
to  reward  a  bad  action  with  a  good  one,  or  to  return  good  for  evil ; 
and  wherever  it  is  done,  it  is  a  voluntary  act,  and  not  a  duty.  It 
is  also  absurd  to  suppose  that  such  doctrine  can  make  any  part  of 
a  revealed  religion.  We  imitate  the  moral  character  of  the  Cre- 
ator by  forbearing  with  each  other,  for  he  forbears  with  all ;  but 
this  doctrine  would  imply  that  he  loved  man,  not  in  proportion  as 
he  was  good,  but  as  he  was  bad. 

If  we  consider  the  nature  of  our  condition  here,  we  must  see 
there  is  no  occasion  for  such  a  thing  as  revealed  religion.     What 
is  it  we  want  to  know  ]  Does  not  the  creation,  the  universe  we  be- 
nold,  preach  to  us  the  existence  of  an  Almighty  power  that  go- 
ems  and  regulates  the  whole  ?     And  is  not  the  evidence  that 
20 


154  THE    AGE    OP    REASON.  [PART    II 

this  creation  holds  out  to  our  senses  infinitely  stronger  than  any 
thing  we  can  read  in  a  book,  that  any  imposter  might  make  and 
call  the  word  of  God  1  As  for  morality,  the  knowledge  of  it 
exists  in  every  man's  conscience. 

Here  we  are.  The  existence  of  an  Almlghti  power  is  sufficient 
ly  demonstrated  to  us,  though  we  cannot  conceive,  as  it  is  impos- 
sible we  should,  the  nature  and  manner  of  its  existence.  We  can- 
not conceive  how  we  came  here  ourselves,  and  yet  we  know  for  a 
fact  that  we  are  here.  We  must  know  also,  that  the  power  that 
called  us  into  being,  can,  if  he  please,  and  when  he  pleases,  call 
us  to  account  for  the  manner  in  which  we  have  lived  here  ;  and, 
therefore,  without  seeking  any  other  motive  for  the  belief,  it  is  ra- 
tional to  believe  that  he  will,  for  we  know  before-hand  that  he  can. 
The  probability,  or  even  possibility  of  the  thing  is  all  that  we  ought 
to  know  ;  for  if  we  knew  it  as  a  fact,  we  should  be  the  mere  slaves 
of  terror  :  our  belief  would  have  no  merit ;  and  our  best  actions 
no  virtue. 

Deism  then  teaches  us,  without  the  possibihty  of  being  deceiv 
ed,  all  that  is  necessary  or  proper  to  be  known.  The  creation  is 
the  Bible  of  the  Deist.  He  there  reads,  in  the  hand-writing  of  the 
Creator  himself,  the  certainty  of  his  existence,  and  the  immutabi 
lity  of  his  power,  and  all  other  Bibles  and  Testaments  are  to  him 
forgeries.  The  probability  that  we  may  be  called  to  account 
hereafter,  will,  to  a  reflecting  mind,  have  the  influence  of  belief; 
for  it  is  not  our  belief  or  disbelief  that  can  make  or  unmake  the 
fact.  As  this  is  the  state  we  are  in,  and  which  it  is  proper  we 
should  be  in,  as  free  agents,  it  is  the  fool  only,  and  not  the  philo- 
sopher, or  even  the  prudent  man,  that  would  hve  as  if  there  were 
no  God. 

But  the  belief  of  a  God  is  so  weakened  by  being  mixed  with  the 
strange  fable  of  the  Christian  creed,  and  with  the  wild  adventures 
related  in  the  Bible,  and  of  the  obscurity  and  obscene  nonsense 
of  the  Testament,  that  the  mind  of  man  is  bewildered  as  in  a  fog. 
Viewing  all  these  things  in  a  confused  mass,  he  confounds  fact 
with  fable  ;  and  as  he  cannot  believe  all,  he  feels  a  disposition  to 
reject  all.  But  the  belief  of  a  God  is  a  belief  distinct  from  all 
other  things,  and  ought  not  to  be  confounded  with  any.  The  no- 
tion of  a  Trinity  of  Gods  has  enfeebled  the  belief  of  one  God.  A 
multiphcation  of  beliefs  acts  as  a  division  of  belief:  and  in  pro- 
portion as  any  thing  is  Jivided  it  is  weakened. 


PART  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  HEASON.  155 

Religion,  by  such  means,  becomes  a  thing  of  forn ,,  instead  of 
fact ;  of  notion,  instead  of  principles ;  morality  is  banished,  to 
make  room  for  an  imaginary  thing,  called  faith,  and  this  faith  has 
its  origin  in  a  supposed  debauchery  ;  a  man  is  preached  instead 
of  God ;  an  execution  is  an  object  for  gratitude  ;  the  preachers 
daub  themselves  with  the  blood,  like  a  troop  of  assassins,  and 
pretend  to  admire  the  brilliancy  it  gives  them ;  they  preach  a 
humdrum  sermon  on  the  merits  of  the  execution ;  then  praise 
Jesus  Christ  for  being  executed,  and  condemn  the  Jews  for  do- 
ing it. 

A  man,  by  hearing  all  this  nonsense  lumped  and  preached  toge- 
ther, confounds  the  God  of  the  creation  with  the  imagined  God  of 
the  Christians,  and  lives  as  if  there  were  none. 

Of  all  the  systems  of  religion  that  ever  were  invented,  there  is 
none  more  derogatory  to  the  Almighty,  more  unedifying  to  man, 
more  repugnant  to  reason,  and  more  contradictory  in  itself,  than 
this  thing  called  Christianity.  Too  absurd  for  belief,  too  impossi- 
ble to  convince,  and  too  inconsistent  for  practice,  it  renders  the 
heart  torpid,  or  produces  only  atheists  and  fanatics.  As  an  en- 
gine of  power,  it  serves  the  purpose  of  despotism  ;  and  as  a  means 
of  wealth,  the  avarice  of  priests  ;  but  so  far  as  respects  the  good 
of  man  in  general,  it  leads  to  nothing  here  or  hereafter. 

The  only  religion  that  has  not  been  invented,  and  that  has  in  it 
every  evidence  of  divine  originality,  is  pure  and  simple  Deism. 
It  must  have  been  the  first,  and  will  probably  be  the  last  that  man 
believes.  But  pure  and  simple  Deism  does  not  answer  the  pur- 
pose of  despotic  governments.  They  cannot  lay  hold  of  religion 
as  an  engine,  but  by  mixing  it  with  human  inventions,  and  making 
their  own  authority  a  part  ;  neither  does  it  answer  the  avarice  of 
priests  but  by  incorporating  themselves  and  their  functions  with  it, 
and  becoming,  like  the  government,  a  party  in  the  system.  It  is 
this  that  forms  the  otherwise  mysterious  connection  of  church  and 
state  ;  the  church  humane,  and  the  state  tyrannic. 

Were  man  impressed  as  fully  and  as  strongly  as  he  ought  to  be 
with  the  belief  of  a  God,  his  moral  life  would  be  regulated  by  the 
force  of  that  belief ;  he  would  stand  in  awe  of  God,  and  of  him- 
self, and  would  not  do  the  thing  that  could  not  be  concealed  from 
either.  To  give  this  belief  the  full  opportunity  offeree,  it  is  ne- 
cessary that  it  acts  alone.     This  is  Deism. 


156  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART  II, 

But  when,  according  to  the  Christian  Trinitarian  scheme,  one 
part  of  God  is  represented  by  a  dying  man,  and  another  part  called 
the  Holy  Ghost,  by  a  flying  pigeon,  it  is  impossible  that  belief 
can  attach  itself  to  such  wild  conceits.* 

It  has  been  the  scheme  of  the  Christian  church,  and  of  all  the 
other  invented  systems  of  religion,  to  hold  man  m  ignorance  of  the 
Creator,  as  it  is  of  government  to  hold  man  m  ignorance  of  his 
rights.  The  systems  of  the  one  are  as  false  as  those  of  the  other, 
and  are  calculated  for  mutual  support.  The  study  of  theology, 
as  it  stands  in  Christian  churches,  is  the  study  of  nothing  ;  it  is 
founded  on  nothing  ;  it  rests  on  no  principles  ;  it  proceeds  by  no 
authorities ;  it  has  no  data ;  it  can  demonstrate  nothing ;  and  it 
admits  of  no  conclusion.  Not  any  thing  can  be  studied  as  a  sci- 
ence, without  our  being  in  possession  of  the  principles  upon 
which  it  is  founded ;  and  as  this  is  not  the  case  with  Christian 
theology,  it  is  therefore  the  study  of  nothing. 

Instead  then  of  studying  theology,  as  is  now  done,  out  of  the 
Bible  and  Testament,  the  meanings  of  which  books  are  always 
controverted,  and  the  authenticity  of  which  is  disproved,  it  is 
necessary  that  we  refer  to  the  Bible  of  the  creation.  The  prin- 
ciples we  discover  there  are  eternal,  and  of  divine  origin :  they 
are  the  foundation  of  all  the  science  that  exists  in  the  world,  and 
must  be  the  foundation  of  theology. 

We  can  know  God  only  through  his  works.  We  cannot  have  a 
conception  of  any  one  attribute,  but  by  following  some  principle 
that  leads  to  it.  We  have  only  a  confused  idea  of  his  power,  if 
we  have  not  the  means  of  comprehending  something  of  its  im- 
mensity. We  can  have  no  idea  of  his  wisdom,  but  by  knowing 
the  order  and  manner  in  which  it  acts.  The  principles  of  science 
lead  to  this  knowledge  ;  for  the  Creator  of  man  is  the  Creator  of 
science  ;  and  it  is  through  that  medium  that  man  can  see  God,  as 
it  were,  face  to  face. 

Could  a  man  be  placed  in  a  situation,  and  endowed  with  the 
power  of  vision,  to  behold  at  one  view,  and  to  contemplate  delibe- 
rately, the  structure  of  the  universe  ;  to  mark  the  movements  of 

*  Tlie  book  called  the  book  of  Matthew,  says,  chap.  ili.  ver,  16,  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  descended  in  the  shape  of  a  dove.  It  might  as  well  have  said  a 
^oose  ;  the  creatures  are  equally  harmless,  and  the  one  is  as  much  a  nonsensical 
lie  as  the  other.  The  second  of  Acts,  ver.  2,  3,  says,  that  it  descended  in  a 
mighty  rushing  loind,  in  the  sliipe  of  cloven  tongues:  perhaps  it  was  cloven 
feet.     Such  absurd  stuff  is  only  fit  for  tales  of  witches  and  wizards. 


PAKT  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  157 

the  several  planets,  the  cause  of  their  varying  appearances,  the 
unerring  order  in  which  they  revolve,  even  to  the  remotest  comet ; 
their  connection  and  dependence  on  each  other,  and  to  know  the 
system  of  laws  established  by  the  Creator,  that  governs  and  regu- 
lates the  whole ;  he  would  then  conceive,  far  beyond  what  any 
church  theology  can  teach  him,  the  power,  the  wisdom,  the  vast- 
ness,  the  munificence  of  the  Creator  ;  he  would  then  see,  that  all 
the  knowledge  man  has  of  science,  and  that  all  the  mechanical  arts 
by  which  he  renders  his  situation  comfortable  here,  are  derived 
from  that  source  :  his  mind,  exalted  by  the  scene,  and  convinced 
by  the  fact,  would  increase  in  gratitude  as  it  increased  in  know- 
ledge ;  his  religion  or  his  worship  would  become  united  with  his 
improvement  as  a  man  ;  any  employment  he  followed,  that  had 
connection  with  the  piinciples  of  the  creation,  as  every  thing  of 
agriculture,  of  science,  and  of  the  mechanical  arts,  has,  would 
teach  him  more  of  God,  and  of  the  gratitude  he  owes  to  him,  than 
any  theological  Christian  sermon  he  now  hears.  Great  objects 
inspire  great  thoughts  ;  great  munificence  excites  great  gratitude  ; 
but  the  groveling  tales  and  doctrines  of  the  Bible  and  the  Testa- 
ment are  fit  only  to  excite  contempt. 

Though  man  cannot  arrive,  at  least  in  this  life,  at  the  actual 
scene  I  have  described,  he  can  demonstrate  it ;  because  he  has  a 
knowledge  of  the  principles  upon  which  the  creation  is  constructed. 
We  know  that  the  greatest  works  can  be  represented  in  model, 
and  that  the  universe  can  be  represented  by  the  same  means. 
The  same  principles  by  which  we  measure  an  inch,  or  an  acre  of 
ground,  will  measure  to  millions  in  extent.  A  circle  of  an  inch 
diameter,  has  the  same  geometrical  properties  as  a  circle  that 
would  circumscribe  the  universe.  The  same  properties  of  a 
triangle  that  will  demonstrate  upon  paper  the  course  of  a  ship,  will 
do  it  on  the  ocean  ;  and  when  applied  to  what  are  called  the 
heavenly  bodies,  will  ascertain  to  a  minute  the  time  of  an  eclipse, 
though  these  bodies  are  millions  of  miles  distant  from  us.  This 
knowledge  is  of  divine  origin ;  and  it  is  from  the  Bible  of  the 
creation  that  man  has  learned  it,  and  not  from  the  stupid  Bible  of 
the  church,  that  teacheth  man  nothing.* 

*  The  Bible-makers  have  undertaken  to  give  us,  in  the  flrst  chapter  or 
Genesis,  an  account  of  the  creation  ;  and  in  doing  this  they  have  demonstrated 
nothing  but  their  ignorance.  They  make  there  to  have  oecn  tlircc  days  and 
three  nights,  evenings  and  morninjjs,  before  there  was  a  sun ;  when  it  is  the 
presence  or  al.>seuce  of  a  sun  that  is  the  cause  of  day  and  night — and  what  is 


158  THE    AGE    OF    REASON.  [PART  II 

All  the  knowledge  man  has  of  science  and  of  machinery,  by  the 
aid  of  which  his  existence  is  rendered  comfortable  upon  earth, 
and  without  which  he  would  be  scarcely  distinguishable  in  appear- 
ance and  condition  from  a  common  animal,  comes  from  the  great 
machine  and  structure  of  the  universe.  The  constant  and  un- 
wearied observations  of  our  ancestors  upon  the  movemeots  and 
revolutions  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  in  what  are  supposed  to  have 
been  the  early  ages  of  the  world,  have  brought  this  knowledge 
upon  earth.  It  is  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  nor  Jesus  Christ, 
nor  his  apostles  that  have  done  it.  The  Almighty  is  the  great 
mechanic  of  the  creation ;  the  first  philosopher  and  original 
teacher  of  all  science  ; — Let  us  then  learn  to  reverence  our  mas- 
ter, and  not  let  us  forget  the  labours  of  our  ancestors. 

Had  we,  at  this  day,  no  knowledge  of  machinery,  and  were  it 
possible  that  man  could  have  a  view,  as  I  have  before  described, 
of  the  structure  and  machinery  of  the  universe,  he  would  soon 
conceive  the  idea  of  constructing  some  at  least  of  the  mechanical 
works  we  now  have  :  and  the  idea  so  conceived  would  progres- 
sively advance  in  practice.  Or  could  a  model  of  the  universe, 
such  as  is  called  an  orrery,  be  presented  before  him  and  put  in 
motion,  his  mind  would  arrive  at  the  same  idea.  Such  an  object 
and  such  a  subject  would,  whilst  it  improved  him  in  knowledge 
useful  to  himself  as  a  man  and  a  member  of  society,  as  well  as 
entertaining,  afTord  far  better  matter  for  impressing  him  with  a 
knowledge  of,  and  a  belief  in  the  Creator,  and  of  the  reverence 
and  gratitude  that  man  owes  to  him,  than  the  stupid  texts  of  the 
Bible  and  of  the  Testament,  from  which,  be  the  talents  of  the 
preacher  what  they  may,  only  stupid  sermons  can  be  preached. 
If  man  must  preach,  let  him  preach  something  that  is  edifying, 
and  from  texts  that  are  known  to  be  true. 

The  Bible  of  the  creation  is  inexhaustible  in  texts.    Every  part 

called  his  risino;  and  setting,  that  of  morning  and  evening.  Besides,  it  is  a  pue- 
rile and  pitifuHdea,  to  suppose  the  Almighty  to  say,  "Let  there  be  light."  It 
is  the  imperative  manner  of  speaking  that  a  conjurer  uses,  when  he  says  to  his 
cups  and  balls,  Presto,  be  gone — and  most  probably  has  been  taken  from  it, 
as  Moses  and  his  rod  are  a  conjurer  and  his  wand.  Longinus  calls  this  ex- 
pression the  sublime  ;  and  by  the  same  rule  the  conjurer  is  sublime  too  ;  for 
the  manner  of  speaking  is  expressively  and  grammatically  the  same.  When 
authors  and  critics  talk  of  the  sublime,  they  see  not  how  nearly  it  borders  on 
the  ridiculous.  The  sublime  of  the  critics,  like  some  parts  of  Edmund  Burke's 
sublime  and  beautiful,  is  like  a  wind-mill  just  visible  in  a  fog,  which  im- 
magination  might  distort  into  a  flying  mountain,  or  an  archangel,  or  a 
flock  of  \vild  geese. 


PART  II.]  THE  AGE  OF  REASON.  159 

of  science,  whether  connected  with  the  geometry  of  the  universe, 
with  the  systems  of  animal  and  vegetable  life,  or  with  the  proper- 
ties of  inanimate  matter,  is  a  text  as  well  for  devotion  as  for  philo- 
sophy— for  gratitude  as  for  human  improvement.  It  will  perhaps 
be  said,  that  if  such  a  revolution  in  the  system  of  religion  takes 
place,  every  preacher  ought  to  be  a  philosopher. — J[Iost  certainly  • 
and  every  house  of  devotion  a  school  of  science. 

It  has  been  by  wandering  from  the  immutable  laws  of  science, 
and  the  right  use  of  reason,  and  setting  up  an  invented  thing  called 
revealed  religion,  that  so  many  wild  and  blasphemous  conceits 
have  been  formed  of  the  Almighty.  The  Jews  have  made  him 
the  assassin  of  the  human  species,  to  make  room  for  the  religion  of 
the  Jews.  The  Christians  have  made  him  the  murderer  of  him- 
self, and  the  founder  of  a  new  religion,  to  supercede  and  expel  the 
Jewish  religion.  And  to  find  pretence  and  admission  for  these 
things,  they  must  have  supposed  his  power  and  his  wisdom  imper- 
fect, or  his  will  changeable  ;  and  the  changeableness  of  the  will 
is  the  imperfection  of  the  judgment.  The  philosopher  knows  that 
the  laws  of  the  Creator  have  never  changed  with  respect  either  to 
the  principles  of  science,  or  the  properties  of  matter.  Why  then 
is  it  to  be  supposed  they  have  changed  with  respect  to  man  ? 

I  here  close  the  subject.  I  have  shown  in  all  the  foregoing  parts 
of  this  work  that  the  Bible  and  Testament  are  impositions  and 
forgeries  ;  and  I  leave  the  evidence  I  have  produced  in  proof  of  it 
t.0  be  refuted,  if  any  one  can  do  it :  and  I  leave  the  ideas  that 
are  suggested  in  the  conclusion  of  the  work  to  rest  on  the  mind 
of  the  reader  ;  certain  as  I  am,  that  when  opinions  are  free, 
either  in  matters  of  government  or  -eligion,  truth  will  finally 
and  powerfully  prevail. 

THE  END. 


LETTER; 

BEING 

AN  ANSWER  TO  A  FRIEND. 

ON    THE    PUBLICATION    OF 

THE    AGE   OF  REASON. 


PARIS,  MAT  12,  1797. 

In  your  letter  of  the  20th  of  March,  you  gave  me  several  quo- 
tations from  the  Bible,  which  you  call  the  tvord  of  God,  to  show 
me  that  my  opinions  on  religion  are  wrong,  and  1  could  give  you 
as  many,  from  the  same  book,  to  show  that  yours  are  not  right ; 
consequently,  then,  the  Bible  decides  nothing,  because  it  decides 
any  way,  and  every  way,  one  chooses  to  make  it. 

But  by  what  authority  do  you  call  the  Bible  the  word  of 
God  ?  for  this  is  the  first  point  to  be  settled.  It  is  not  your  calling 
it  so  that  makes  it  so,  any  more  than  the  Mahometans  calling  the 
Koran  the  word  of  God  makes  the  Koran  to  be  so.  The  Popish 
Councils  of  Nice  and  Laodicea,  about  350  years  after  the  time 
that  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ  is  said  to  have  lived,  voted  the 
books,  that  now  compose  what  is  called  the  New  Testament,,  to 
bo  the  word  of  God.  This  was  done  by  yeas  and  naySy  as  we 
now  vote  a  law.  The  Pharisees  of  the  second  Temple,  after  the 
Jews  returned  from  captivity  in  Babylon,  did  the  same  by  the 
books  that  now  compose  the  Old  Testament,  and  this  is  all  the 
authority  there  is,  which  to  me  is  no  authority  at  all.  I  am  as  ca- 
pable of  judging  for  myself  as  they  were,  and  I  think  more  so, 
because,  as  they  made  a  living  by  their  religion^  they  had  a  selA- 
interest  in  the  vote  they  gave. 

21 


162  LETTER    TO   A    FRIEND. 

You  may  have  an  opinion  that  a  man  is  inspired,  but  you  can- 
not prove  it,  nor  can  you  have  any  proof  of  it  yourself,  because 
you  cannot  see  into  his  mind  in  order  to  know  how  he  comes  by 
his  thoughts,  and  the  same  is  the  case  with  the  word  revelation. — 
There  can  be  no  evidence  of  such  a  thing,  for  you  can  no  more 
prove  revelation,  than  you  can  prove  what  another  man  dreams  of, 
neither  can  he  prove  it  himself. 

It  is  often  said  in  the  Bible  that  God  spake  unto  Moses,  but 
how  do  you  know  that  God  spake  unto  Moses  1  Because,  you  will 
say,  the  Bible  says  so.  The  Koran  says,  that  God  spake  unto 
Mahomet,  do  you  believe  that  too?  No.  Why  not  ?  Because, 
you  will  say,  you  do  not  believe  it  ;  and  so  because  you  do,  and 
because  you  donH,  is  all  the  reason  you  can  give  for  believing  or 
disbelieving,  except  you  will  say  that  INIahomet  was  an  impostor. 
And  how  do  you  know  Moses  was  not  an  iniposter  1  For  my  own 
part,  I  believe  that  all  are  imposters  who  pretend  to  hold  verbal 
communication  with  the  Deity.  It  is  the  way  by  which  the  world 
has  been  imposed  upon  ;  but  if  you  think  otherwise  you  have  the 
same  right  to  your  opinion  that  I  have  to  mine,  and  must  answer 
for  it  m  the  same  manner.  But  all  this  does  not  settle  the  point, 
•whether  the  Bible  be  the  word  of  God,  or  not.  It  is,  therefore,  ne- 
cessary to  go  a  step  further.     The  case  then  is  : — 

You  form  your  opinion  of  God  from  the  account  given  of  him 
m  the  Bible  ;  and  I  form  my  opinion  of  the  Bible  from  the  wis- 
dom and  goodness  of  God,  manifested  in  the  structure  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  in  all  the  works  of  the  Creation.  The  result  in  these 
two  cases  will  be,  that  you,  by  taking  the  Bible  for  your  standard, 
will  have  a  bad  opinion  of  God;  and  I,  by  taking  God  for  my 
standard,  shall  have  a  bad  opinion  of  the  Bible. 

The  Bible  represents  God  to  be  a  changeable,  passionate,  vin- 
dictive being ;  making  a  world,  and  then  drowning  it,  afterwards 
repenting  of  what  he  had  done,  anu  promising  not  to  do  so  again. 
Setting  one  nation  to  cut  the  throats  of  another,  and  stopping  the 
course  of  the  sun  till  the  butchery  should  be  done.  But  the  works 
of  God,  in  the  Creation,  preach  to  us  another  doctrine.  In  that 
vast  volume  we  see  nothing  to  give  us  the  idea  of  a  changeable, 
passionate,  vindictive  God,  every  thing  we  there  behold  impresses 
us  with  a  contrary  idea  ;  that  of  unchangeableness  and  of  eternal 
order,  harmony,  and  goodness.  The  sun  and  the  seasons  return 
at  their  appointed  time,  and  every  thing  in  the  Creation  proclaims 


LETTER    TO    A    FRIEND.  163 

that  God  is  unchangeable.  Now,  Avhich  am  I  to  believe,  a  book 
that  any  impostor  may  make,  and  call  the  ivord  of  God,  or  the 
Creation  itself  which  none  but  an  Almighty  Power  could  make,  for 
the  Bil)le  says  one  thing,  and  the  Creation  says  the  contrary. 
The  Bible  represents  God  with  all  the  passions  of  a  mortal,  and 
the  Creation  proclaims  him  with  all  the  attributes  of  a  God. 

If  is  from  the  Bible  that  man  has  learned  cruelty,  rapine,  and 
murder  ;  for  the  belief  of  a  cruel  God  makes  a  cruel  man.  That 
blood-thirsty  man,  called  the  prophet  Samuel,  makes  God  to  say, 
(1  Sam.  chap.  xv.  ver.  3,)  "  Now  go  and  smite  Amaleck,  and 
utterly  destroy  all  that  they  have,  and  spare  them  not,  hut  slay  both 
man  and  rvoman,  infant  and  suckling,  ox  and  sheep,  camel  and 
as*." 

That  Samuel,  or  some  other  impostor,  might  say  this,  is  what, 
at  this  distance  of  time,  can  neither  be  proved  nor  disproved,  but, 
in  my  opmion,  it  is  blasphemy  to  say,  or  to  believe,  that  God  said 
it.  All  our  ideas  of  the  justice  and  goodness  of  God  revolt  at 
the  impious  cruelty  of  the  Bible.  It  is  not  a  God,  just  and  good, 
but  a  devil,  under  the  name  of  God,  that  the  Bible  describes. 

"What  makes  this  pretended  order  to  destroy  the  Amalekites  ap- 
pear the  worse,  is  the  reason  given  for  it.  The  Amalekites,  four 
hundred  years  before,  according  to  the  account  in  Exodus,  chap. 
17,  (but  which  has  the  appearance  of  fable  from  the  magical  ac- 
count it  gives  of  Moses  holding  up  his  hands,)  had  opposed  the 
Israelites  coming  into  their  country,  and  this  the  Amalekites  had 
a  right  to  do,  because  the  Israelites  were  the  invaders,  as  the 
Spaniards  were  the  invaders  of  Mexico  ;  and  this  opposition  by 
the  Amalekites,  at  that  time,  is  given  as  a  reason,  that  the  men, 
women,  infants  and  sucklings,  sheep  and  oxen,  camels  and  asses, 
that  were  born  four  hundred  years  afterwards,  should  be  put  to 
death  ;  and  to  complete  the  horror,  Samuel  hewed  Agag,  the 
chief  of  the  Amalekites,  in  pieces,  as  you  would  hew  a  stick 
of  wood,  I  will  bestow  a  few  observations  on  this  case. 

In  the  first  place,  nobody  knows  who  the  author,  or  writer,  of 
the  book  of  Samuel  was,  and,  therefore,  (he  fact  itself  has  no 
other  proof  than  anonymous  or  hearsay  evidence,  which  is  no 
evidence  at  all.  In  the  second  place,  this  anonymous  book  says, 
that  this  slaughter  was  done  by  the  express  command  of  God  :  but' 
all  our  ideas  of  the  justice  and  goodness  of  God  give  the  lie  to 
the  book,  and  as  I  never  will  believe  any  book  that  ascribes  cruelty 


164  LETTER    TO    A    FRIEND. 

And  injustice  to  God.  I,  therefore,  reject  the  Bible  as  unworthy 
of  credit. 

As  I  have  now  given  you  my  reasons  for  believing  that  the  Bible 
13  not  the  word  of  God,  and  that  it  is  a  falsehood,  I  have  a  right 
to  ask  you  your  reasons  for  believing  the  contrary  ;  but  I  know 
you  can  give  me  none,  except  that  you  were  educated  to  believe 
the  Bible,  and  as  the  Turks  give  the  same  reason  for  believing 
the  Koran,  it  is  evident  that  education  makes  all  the  difference,  and 
that  reason  and  truth  have  nothing  to  do  in  the  case.  You  be- 
lieve in  the  Bible  from  the  accident  of  birth,  and  the  Turks  believe 
in  the  Koran  from  the  same  accident,  and  each  calls  the  other  in- 
Jidel. — But  leaving  the  prejudice  of  education  out  of  the  case, 
the  unprejudiced  truth  is,  that  all  are  infidels  who  believe  false- 
ly of  God,  whether  they  draw  their  creed  from  the  Bible,  or 
from  the  Koran,  from  the  Old  Testament  or  from  the  New. 

When  you  have  examined  the  Bible  with  the  attention  that  I 
have  done,  (for  I  do  not  think  you  know  much  about  it,)  and  per- 
mit yourself  to  have  just  ideas  of  God,  you  will  most  probably 
believe  as  I  do.  But  I  wish  you  to  know  that  this  answer  to  your 
letter  is  not  written  for  the  purpose  of  changing  your  opinion. 
It  is  written  to  satisfy  you,  and  some  other  friends  whom  I  esteem, 
that  my  disbelief  of  the  Bible  is  founded  on  a  pure  and  religious 
belief  in  God  ;  for,  in  my  opinion,  the  Bible  is  a  gross  libel 
against  the  justice  and  goodness  of  God,  in  almost  every  part  of  it. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


LETTER   TO  MR.  ERSKINE  * 


Of  all  the  tyrannies  that  afflict  mankind,  tyranny  in  religion  is 
the  worst  :  every  other  species  of  tyranny  is  limited  to  the  world 
we  live  in  ;  but  this  attempts  a  stride  beyond  the  grave,  and  seeks 
to  pursue  us  into  eternity.  It  is  there  and  not  here — it  is  to  God 
and  not  to  man — it  is  to  a  heavenly  and  not  to  an  earthly  tribunal 
that  we  are  to  account  for  our  belief;  if  then  we  believe  falsely 
and  dishonourably  of  the  Creator,  and  that  belief  is  forced  upon 
us,  as  far  as  force  can  operate  by  human  laws  and  human  tribu- 
nals,— on  whom  is  the  criminality  of  that  belief  to  fall  1  on  those 
who  impose  it,  or  on  those  on  whom  it  is  imposed  ? 

A  bookseller  of  the  name  of  Williams  has  been  prosecuted  in 
London  on  a  charge  of  blasphemy,  for  publishing  a  book  entitled 
the  Age  of  Reason.  Blasphemy  is  a  word  of  vast  sound,  but 
equivocal  and  almost  indefinite  signification,  unless  we  confine  it 
to  the  simple  idea  of  hurting  or  injuring  the  reputation  of  any  one, 
which  was  its  original  meaning.  As  a  word,  it  existed  before 
Christianity  existed,  being  a  Greek  word,  or  Greek  anglofied,  as 
all  the  etymological  dictionaries  will  show. 

But  behold  how  various  and  contradictory  has  been  the  signifi- 
cation and  application  of  this  equivocal  word.  Socrates,  who 
lived  more  than  four  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era,  was 

*  Mr.  Paine  has  evidently  incorporated  into  this  Letter  a  portion  of  his  an- 
swer to  Bishop  Watson's  "Apology  for  the  Bible  ;"  as  in  a  chapter  of  that 
work,  treating  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  he  expressly  refers  to  his  remarks,  in  a 
preceding  part  of  the  same,  on  the  two  accounts  of  the  creation  contained  in 
that  book ;  which  is  included  in  this  letter. 


166  LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE. 

convicted  of  blasphemy,  for  preaching  against  the  belief  of  a  plu- 
lality  of  gods,  and  for  preaching  the  belief  of  one  god,  and  was 
condemned  to  suffer  death  by  poison.  Jesus  Christ  was  convict- 
ed of  blasphemy  under  the  Jewish  law,  and  was  crucified.  Call- 
ing Mahomet  an  impostor  would  be  blasphemy  in  Turkey  ;  and 
denying  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  and  the  Church,  would  be 
blasphemy  at  Rome.  What  then  is  to  be  understood  by  this  word 
blasphemy  ?  We  see  that  in  the  case  of  Socrates  truth  was  con- 
demned as  blasphemy.  Are  we  sure  that  truth  is  not  blasphemy 
in  the  present  day  1  Woe,  however,  be  to  those  who  make  it  so, 
whoever  they  may  be. 

A  book  called  the  Bible  has  been  voted  by  men,  and  decreed  by 
human  laws  to  be  the  word  of  God  ;  and  the  disbelief  of  this  is 
called  blasphemy.  But  if  the  Bible  be  not  the  word  of  God,  it  iij 
the  laws  and  the  execution  of  them  that  is  blasphemy,  and  not  the 
disbelief.  Strange  stories  are  told  of  the  Creator  in  that  book. 
He  is  represented  as  acting  under  the  influence  of  every  human 
passion,  even  of  the  most  malignant  kind.  If  these  stories  are 
false,  we  err  in  believing  them  to  be  true,  and  ought  not  to  believe 
them.  It  is,  therefore,  a  duty  which  every  man  owes  to  himself, 
and  icverentially  to  his  Maker,  to  ascertain,  by  every  possible  in- 
quiry, whether  there  be  sufficient  evidence  to  believe  them  or  not. 

My  own  opinion  is,  decidedly,  that  the  evidence  does  not  warrant 
the  belief,  and  that  we  sin  in  forcing  that  belief  upon  ourselves  and 
upon  others.  In  saying  this,  I  have  no  other  object  in  view  than 
truth.  But  tha*  T.  may  not  be  accused  of  resting  upon  bare  asser- 
tion with  respect  to  the  equivocal  state  of  the  Bible,  I  will  produce 
an  example,  and  I  will  not  pick  and  cull  the  Bible  for  the  purpose. 
I  will"  go  fairly  to  the  case  :  I  will  take  the  two  first  chapters  of 
Genesis  as  they  stand,  and  show  from  thence  the  truth  of  what  I 
say,  that  is,  that  the  evidence  does  not  warrant  the  belief  that  the 
Bible  is  the  word  of  God. 


CHAPTER  I. 

1.  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth. 

2.  And  the  earth  was  without  form  and  void,  and  darkness  was 
upon  the  face  of  the  djep  ;  and  the  spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the 
face  of  the  waters. 


LETTER    TO    MR.    EUSKINE.  167 

3.  And  God  said,  Let  there  be  light ;  and  there  was  light. 

4.  And  God  saw  the  light,  that  it  was  good  :  and  God  divided 
the  light  from  darkness. 

5.  And  God  called  the  light  day,  and  the  darkness  he  called 
night :  and  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  first  day. 

6.  IT  And  God  said,  Let  there  be  a  firmament  in  the  midst  of 
the  waters,  and  let  it  divide  the  waters  from  the  waters. 

7.  And  God  made  the  firmament,  and  divided  the  waters  which 
were  under  the  firmament,  from  the  waters  which  were  above  the 
firmament :  and  it  was  so. 

8.  And  God  called  the  firmament  heaven  ;  and  the  evening  and 
the  morning  were  the  second  day. 

9.  IT  And  God  said.  Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven  be  gather- 
ed together  unto  one  place,  and  let  the  dry  land  appear  :  and  it 
was  so. 

10.  And  God  called  the  dry  land  earth,  and  the  gathering  to- 
gether of  the  waters  called  he  seas,  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good. 

11.  And  God  said.  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  grass,  the  herb, 
yielding  seed,  and  the  fruit-tree  yielding  fruit  after  his  kind,  whoso 
seed  is  in  itself,  upon  the  earth,  and  it  was  so. 

12.  And  the  earth  brought  forth  grass,  and  herb  yielding  seed 
after  his  kind,  and  the  tree  yielding  fruit,  whose  seed  was  in  itself, 
after  his  kind  :  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good. 

13.  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  third  day. 

14.  IT  And  God  said.  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firmament  of 
the  heaven,  to  divide  the  day  from  the  night :  and  let  them  be  for 
signs,  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days,  and  years. 

15.  And  let  them  be  for  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven, 
to  give  light  upon  the  earth :  and  it  was  so. 

16.  And  God  made  two  great  lights  ;  the  greater  light  to  rule 
the  day,  and  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night :  he  made  the  stars 
also. 

17.  And  God  set  them  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven,  to  give 
light  upon  the  earth, 

IS.  And  to  rule  over  the  day  and  over  the  night,  and  to  divide 
the  light  from  the  darkness  ;  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good. 

19.  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  fourth  day. 

20.  And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abundantly  the 
moving  creature  that  hath  life,  and  fowl  that  may  fly  above  tha 
earth  in  the  open  firmament  of  heaven. 


188  LETTER    TO    1N£R.    EUSKINE. 

21.  And  God  created  great  whales,  and  every  living  creature 
that  moveth,  which  the  waters  brought  forth  abundantly  after  their 
kind,  and  every  winged  fowl  after  his  kind  :  and  God  saw  that  it 
was  good. 

22.  And  God  blessed  them,  saying,  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply, 
and  fill  the  waters  in  the  seas,  and  let  fowl  multiply  in  the  earth. 

23.  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  fifth  day. 

24.  IF  And  God  said.  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  the  living  crea- 
ture after  his  kind,  cattle  and  creeping  thing  and  beast  of  the  earth 
after  his  kind  :  and  it  was  so. 

25.  And  God  made  the  beast  of  the  earth  after  his  kind,  and 
cattle  after  their  kind,  and  every  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth 
after  his  kind  :  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good. 

26.  IT  And  God  said.  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  oui 
likeness  :  and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and 
over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  the  cattle,  and  over  all  the  earth, 
and  over  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth. 

27.  So  God  created  man  m  his  oivn  image,  i?i  the  image  of  God 
created  he  him  :  male  and  female  created  he  them. 

28.  Jliid  God  blessed  them,  and  God  said  unto  them,  Be  fruit- 
ful, and  multiplij,  and  replenish  the  earth,  and  subdue  it ;  and 
have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air, 
and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth. 

29.  IT  And  God  said.  Behold,  I  have  given  you  every  herb 
bearing  seed,  which  is  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and  every 
tree,  in  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree  yielding  seed  :  to  you  it  shall 
be  for  meat. 

30.  And  to  every  beast  of  the  earth,  and  to  every  fowl  of  the 
air,  and  to  every  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth,  wherein  there 
is  life,  I  have  given  every  green  herb  for  meat  :  and  it  was  so. 

3L  And  God  saw  every  thing  that  he  had  made,  and  behold  it 
was  very  good.  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  sixth 
day. 


CHAPTER  n. 

1.  Thus  the  heavens  and  the  earth  were  finished,  and  all  the 
host  of  them 


LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE.  169 

2.  And  on  the  seventh  day  God  ended  his  work  which  he  had 
made,  and  he  rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work  which  he 
bad  made. 

3.  And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day  and  sanctified  it :  because 
&at  in  it  he  had  rested  from  all  his  work,  which  God  created  and 
made. 


4.  IT  These  are  the  generations  of  the  heavens  and  of  the  earth, 
when  they  were  created  ;  in  the  day  that  the  Lord  God  made  the 
earth  and  the  heavens. 

5.  And  every  plant  of  the  field,  before  it  was  m  the  earth,  and 
every  herb  of  the  field,  before  it  grew  ;  for  the  Lord  God  had  not 
caused  it  to  rain  upon  the  earth,  and  there  ivas  not  a  man  to  till  the 
ground. 

6.  But  there  went  up  a  mist  from  the  earth,  and  watered  the 
whole  face  of  the  ground. 

7.  And  the  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground, 
and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life  ;  and  man  became 
a  hving  soul. 

8.  And  the  Lord  God  planted  a  garden  eastward  of  Eden ;  and 
there  he  put  the  man  whom  he  had  formed. 

9.  And  out  of  the  ground  made  the  Lord  God  to  grow  every 
tree  that  is  pleasant  to  the  sight,  and  good  for  food  ;  the  tree  of 
life  also  in  the  midst  of  the  garden,  and  the  tree  of  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil. 

10.  And  a  river  went  out  of  Eden  to  water  the  garden  :  and 
from  thence  it  was  parted,  and  became  into  four  heads. 

1 1 .  The  name  of  the  first  is  Pison :  that  is  it  which  compasseth 
the  whole  land  of  Havilah,  where  there  is  gold. 

12.  And  the  gold  of  that  land  is  good  :  there  is  bdellium  and 
the  onyx-stone. 

13.  And  the  name  of  the  second  river  is  Gibon  :  the  same  is 
it  that  compasseth  the  whole  land  of  Ethiopia. 

14.  And  the  name  of  the  third  river  is  Heddekel :  that  is  it 
which  goeth  toward  the  east  of  Assyria.  And  the  fourth  river  is 
Euphrates. 

15.  And  the  Lord  God  took  the  man,  and  put  him  into  the  gar 
den  of  JRden,  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it. 


170  LETTER    TO    Mli.    ERSKINE. 

16.  And  the  Lord  God  commanded  the  man,  saying,  of  every 
tree  of  the  garden  thou  mayest  freely  eat : 

17.  But  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  thou 
shall  not  eat  of  it ;  for  in  the  day  that  thou  eatest  thereof,  thou 
shalt  surely  die. 

18.  IT  And  the  Lord  God  said,  it  is  not  good  that  the  man  should 
be  alone  :  I  will  make  him  an  help  meet  for  him. 

19.  And  out  of  the  ground  the  Lord  God  formed  every  beast  of 
the  field,  and  every  fowl  of  the  air,  and  brought  them  unto  Adam, 
to  see  what  he  would  call  them  ;  and  whatsoever  Adam  called 
every  living  creature,  that  was  the  name  thereof. 

20.  And  Adam  gave  names  to  all  cattle,  and  to  the  fowl  of  the 
air,  and  to  every  beast  of  the  field  ;  but  for  Adam  there  was  not 
found  an  help  meet  for  him. 

21.  And  the  Lord  God  caused  a  deep  sleep  to  fall  upon  Adam, 
and  he  slept ;  and  he  took  one  of  his  ribs,  and  closed  up  the 
flesh  instead  thereof. 

22.  And  the  rib  which  the  Lord  God  had  taken  from  man,  made 
he  a  woman,  and  ^r_  jght  her  unto  the  man. 

23.  And  Adam  said,  this  is  now  bone  of  my  bones  and  flesh  of 
my  flesh  ;  she  shall  be  called  woman,  because  she  was  taken  out 
of  man. 

24.  Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his  mother,  and 
shall  cleave  unto  his  wife  ;  and  they  shall  be  one  flesh. 

25.  And  they  were  both  naked,  the  man  and  his  wife,  and  were 
not  ashamed. 


These  two  chapters  are  called  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  crea 
tion  ;  and  we  are  told,  nobody  knows  by  whom,  that  Moses. was 
instructed  by  God  to  write  that  account. 

It  has  happened  that  every  nation  of  people  has  been  world 
makers  ;  and  each  makes  the  world  to  begin  his  own  way,  as  if 
they  had  all  been  brought  up,  as  Hudibras  says,  to  the  trade.  There 
are  hundreds  of  different  opinions  and  traditions  how  the  world 
began.*  My  business,  however,  in  this  place,  is  only  with  those 
two  chapters. 

*  In  this  world-making  trade,  man,  of  course,  has  held  a  conspicuous  place; 
and,  for  the  gratification  of  he  curious  enquirer,  the  editor  subioins  two  spo- 


LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE.  171 

I  begin  then  by  saying,  tliat  those  two  chapters,  instead  of 
containing,  as  has  been  beheved,  one  continued  account  of  the 
creation,  written  by   Moses,   contain  two    different    and    con- 

cimens  of  the  opinions  of  learned  men,  in  rfi^ard  to  the  manner  of  liis  forma- 
tion, and  of  his  subsequent  fall.  The  first  he  extracts  from  the  Talmud,  a  work 
containing  the  Jewish  traditions,  the  rabbinical  constitutions,  and  explication 
of  the  law  ;  and  is  of  great  authority  among  the  Jews.  It  was  composed  by 
certain  learned  rabbins,  comprehends  twelve  bulky  folios,  and  forty  years  are 
said  to  have  been  consumed  in  its  compilation.  In  fact,  it  is  deemed  to  con- 
tain the  ichole  body  of  divinity  for  the  Jewish  nation.  Although  the  Scrip- 
tures tell  us  that  the  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dxist  of  the  grotind,  they  do 
not  explain  the  manner  in  which  it  was  done,  and  these  doctors  supply  the 
deficiency  as  follows : — 

"Adam's  body  was  made  of  the  earth  of  Babylon,  his  head  of  the  land  of 
Israel,  his  other  members  of  other  parts  of  the  world.  R.  Meir  thought  he 
was  compact  of  the  earth,  gathered  out  of  the  whole  earth  ;  as  it  is  written, 
thine  eyes  did  see  my  substance.  Now  it  is  elsewhere  written,  the  eyes  of  the  Lord 
are  over  all  the  earth.  R.  Aha  expressly  marks  the  twelve  hours  in  which  his 
various  parts  were  formed.  His  stature  was  from  one  end  of  the  world  to  the 
other ;  and  it  was  for  his  transgression  that  the  Creator,  laying  his  hand  in 
anger  on  him,  lessened  him ;  for  before,  says  R.  Eleazer,  with  his  hand  he 
reached  the  firmament.  R.  Jehuda  thinks  his  sin  was  heresy  ;  but  R.  Isaac 
thinks  it  was  nourishing  his  foreskin." 

The  Mahometan  savans  give  the  following  account  of  the  same  transac 
tion : — 

"  When  God  wished  to  create  man,  he  sent  the  angel  Gabriel  to  take  a 
handful!  of  each  of  the  seven  beds  which  composed  the  earth.  But  when 
the  latter  heard  the  order  of  God,  she  felt  much  alarmed,  and  requested  the 
heavenly  messenger  to  represent  to  God,  that  as  the  creature  he  was  about 
to  form  might  chance  to  rebel  one  day  against  him,  this  would  be  the  means 
of  bringing  upon  herself  the  divine  malediction.  God,  however,  far  from 
listening  to  this  request,  despatched  two  other  angels,  Michael  and  Azrael, 
to  execute  his  will ;  but  they,  moved  with  compassion,  were  prevailed  upon 
again  to  lay  the  complaints  of  the  earth  at  the  feet  of  her  author.  Then 
God  confined  the  execution  of  his  commands  to  the  formidable  Azrael 
alone,  who,  regardless  of  all  the  earth  might  say,  violently  tore  from  her 
bosom  seven  handfuls  from  her  various  strata,  and  carried  them  into  Arabia, 
where  the  work  of  creation  was  to  be  completed.  As  to  Azrael,  God  was  so 
well  pleased  with  the  decisive  manner  in  which  he  had  acted,  that  he  gave 
him  the  office  of  separating  the  soul  from  the  body,  whence  he  is  called  the 
Angel  of  Death. 

"Meanwhile,  the  angels  having  kneaded  this  earth,  God  moulded  it  with  his 
own  hands,  and  left  it  some  time  that  it  might  get  dry.  The  angels  de 
lighted  to  gaze  upon  the  lifeless,  but  beautiful  mass,  with  the  exception  of 
Eblis,  or  Lucifer,  who,  bent  upon  evil,  struck  it  upon  the  stomach,  which 
giving  a  hollow  sound,  he  said,  since  this  creature  will  be  hollow,  it  will 
often  need  being  filled,  and  will  be,  therefore,  exposed  to  pregnant  tempta- 
tions. Upon  this,  he  asked  the  angels  how  they  would  act  if  God  wished  to 
render  them  dependent  upon  this  sovereign  which  he  was  about  to  give  to  the 
earth.  They  readily  answered  that  they  would  obey ;  but  though  Eblis  did 
not  openly  dissent,  he  resolved  within  himself  that  he  would  not  follow  their 
example. 

"  After  the  body  of  the  first  man  had  been  properly  preparer.  God  animated 
it  with  an  intelligent  soul,  and  clad  him  in  splendid  and  marvellous  garments, 
suited  to  the  dignity  of  this  favoured  being.  He  now  commanded  his  angels 
to  fall  prostrate  before  Adam.  All  of  them  obeyed,  with  the  exception  of 
Ebhs,  who  was  in  consequence  immediately  expelled  from  heaven,  and  his 
p.ace  given  to  Adam. 

"  The  formation  of  Eve  from  one  of  the  ribs  of  the  first  man,  is  the  same  as 
that  recorded  in  the  Bible,  as  is  also  the  order  given  to  the  father  of  mankind, 
not  to  taste  tlie  fruit  of  a  particular  t/ee.    Eblis  seized  tliis  opportunity  of  re- 


172  LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE. 

tradictory  stories  of  a  creation,  made  by  two  different  persons, 
and  written  in  two  different  styles  of  expression.  The  evidence 
that  shows  this  is  so  clear,  when  attended  to  without  prejudice, 
that,  did  we  meet  with  the  same  evidence  in  any  Arabic  or  Chi- 
nese account  of  a  creation,  we  should  not  hesitate  in  pronouncing 
it  a  forgery. 

I  proceed  to  distinguish  the  two  stories  from  each  other. 

The  first  story  begins  at  the  first  verse  of  the  first  chapter,  and 
ends  at  the  end  of  the  third  verse  of  the  second  chapter;  for  the 
adverbial  conjunction,  THUS,  with  which  the  second  chapter 
begins,  (as  the  reader  will  see,)  connects  itself  to  the  last  verse  of 
the  first  chapter,  and  those  three  verses  belong  to,  and  make  the 
conclusion  of  the  first  story. 

The  second  story  begins  at  the  fourth  verse  of  the  second 
chapter,  and  ends  with  that  chapter.  Those  two  stories  have  been 
confused  into  one,  by  cutting  off  the  three  last  verses  of  the  first 
story,  and  throwing  them  to  the  second  chapter. 

I  go  now  to  show  that  those  stories  have  been  written  by  two 
different  persons. 

From  the  first  verse  of  the  first  chapter  to  the  end  of  the  third 
verse  of  the  second  chapter,  which  makes  the  whole  of  the  first 
story,  the  word  GOD  is  used  without  any  epithet  or  additional 
word  conjoined  with  it,  as  the  reader  will  see :  and  this  style  of 
expression  is  invariably  used  throughout  the  whole  of  this  story, 
and  is  repeated  no  less  than  thirty-five  times,  viz.  "  In  the  begin- 
ning God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  the  spirit  of  God 

venge.  Havins;  associated  the  peacock  and  the  serpent  in  the  enterprise, 
they  by  their  wily  speeches  at  length  persuaded  Adam  to  become  giiilty  of  dis- 
obedience. But  no  sooner  had  they  touched  the  forbidden  fruit,  than  their 
garments  dropped  on  the  ground,  and  the  sight  of  their  nakedness  covered 
them  both  with  shame  and  with  confusion.  They  made  a  covering  for  their 
body  with  fig  leaves  ;  but  they  were  both  immediately  condemned  to  labour, 
and  to  die,  and  hurled  down  from  Paradise. 

"Adam  fell  upon  the  mountain  of  Sarendip,  in  the  island  of  Ceylon,  where  a 
mountain  is  called  by  his  name  to  the  present  day.  Eve,  being  separated 
from  her  spouse  in  her  fall,  alighted  on  the  spot  where  China  now  stands,  and 
Eblis  fell  not  far  from  the  same  spot.  As  to  the  peacock  and  the  snake,  the 
former  dropped  in  Hindostan  and  the  latter  in  Arabia.  Adam  soon  feeling 
tlie  enormity  of  his  fault,  implored  the  mercy  of  God,  who  relenting,  sent 
down  his  angels  from  heaven  with  a  tabernacle,  which  they  placed  on  the 
spot  where  Abraham.,  at  a  subsequent  period,  built  the  temple  of  Mecca. 
Gabriel  instructed  him  in  the  rites  and  ceremonies  performed  about  the  sane 
tuary,  in  order  that  he  might  obtain  the  forgiveness  of  his  offence,  and  after- 
wards led  him  to  the  mountain  of  Ararat,  where  he  met  Eve,  from  whom  ho 
had  been  now  separated  above  two  hundred  years." 


LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE.  173 

moved  on  the  lace  of  the  waters,  and  God  said,  let  there  be  lighg 
and  God  saw  the  hght,"  &c.  &c. 

But  immediately  from  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  verse  of  the 
second  chapter,  where  the  second  story  begins,  the  style  of 
expression  is  always  the  Lord  God,  and  this  style  of  expression  is 
invariably  used  to  the  end  of  the  chapter,  and  is  repeated  eleven 
times  ;  in  the  one  it  is  always  God,  and  never  the' Lord  God, 
in  the  other  it  is  always  the  Lord  God  and  never  God.  The  first 
story  contains  thirty-four  verses,  and  repeats  the  single  word  God 
thirty-five  times.  The  second  story  contains  twenty-two  verses 
and  repeats  the  compound  word  Lord-God  eleven  times  ;  this 
difference  of  style,  so  often  repeated,  and  so  uniformly  continued, 
shows,  that  those  two  chapters,  containing  two  different  stories, 
are  written  by  different  persons  ;  it  is  the  same  in  all  the  different 
editions  of  the  Bible,  in  all  the  languages  I  have  seen. 

Having  thus  shown,  from  the  difference  of  style,  that  those  two 
chapters  divided,  as  they  properly  divide  themselves,  at  the  end  of 
the  third  verse  of  the  second  chapter,  are  the  work  of  two  differ- 
ent persons,  I  come  to  show,  from  the  contradictory  matters  they 
contain,  that  they  cannot  be  the  work  of  on  e  person,  and  are  two 
different  stories. 

It  is  impossible,  unless  the  writer  was  a  lunatic,  without  memory, 
that  one  and  the  same  person  could  say,  as  is  said  in  the  27th  and 
28th  verses  of  the  first  chapter — "  So  God  created  man  in  his  own 
image,  in  the  image  of  God  created  he  him ;  male  and  female 
created  he  them  :  and  God  blessed  them,  and  God  said  unto  them,  be 
fruitful  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth,  and  subdue  it,  and 
have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowls  of  the  air, 
and  every  living  thing  that  moveth  on  the  face  of  the  earth."  It  is,  I 
say,  impossible  that  the  same  person  who  said  this,  could  afterwards 
say,  as  is  said  in  the  second  chapter,  ver.  5,  and  there  was  not  a 
man  to  till  the  ground ;  and  then  proceed  in  the  7th  verse  to  give 
another  account  of  the  making  a  man  for  the  first  time,  and  after- 
wards of  the  making  a  woman  out  of  his  rib. 

Again,  one  and  the  same  person  could  not  write,  as  is  written  in 
the  29th  verse  of  the  first  chapter :  "  Behold  I  (God)  have  given 
you  every  herb  bearing  seed,  which  is  on  the  face  of  the  earth ; 
and  every  tree,  in  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree  bearing  seed,  to 
you  it  shall  be  for  meat,"  and  afterwards  sav,  as  is  said  in  the 


174  LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE. 

second  chapter,  that  the  Lord-God  planted  a  tree  in  the  midst  of 
a  garden,  and  forbad  man  to  eat  thereof. 

Again,  one  and  the  same  person  could  not  say,  "  Thus  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  icere  finished,  and  all  the  host  of  them,  and 
on  the  seventh  day  God  ended  his  work  lohich  he  had  made  ;"  and 
shortly  after  set  the  Creator  to  work  again,  to  plant  a  garden,  to 
make  a  man  and  a  woman,  &c.  as  is  done  in  the  second  chapter. 

Here  are  evidently  two  different  stories  contradicting  each 
other. — According  to  the  first,  the  two  sexes,  the  male  and  the 
female,  were  made  at  the  same  time.  According  to  the  second, 
they  were  made  at  different  times  :  the  man  first,  the  woman  after- 
wards.— According  to  the  first  story,  they  were  to  have  dommion 
over  all  the  earth.  According  to  the  second,  their  dominion  was 
limited  to  a  garden.  How  large  a  garden  it  could  be,  that  one 
man  and  one  woman  could  dress  and  keep  in  order,  I  leave  to  the 
prosecutor,  the  judge,  the  jury,  and  Mr.  Erskine  to  determine. 

The  story  of  the  talking  ■serpent,  and  its  tete-a-tete  with  Eve ;  the 
doleful  adventure  called  the  Fall  of  Man;  and  how  he  was  turned 
out  of  this  fine  garden,  and  how  the  garden  was  afterwards  locked 
up  and  guarded  by  a  flaming  sword,  (if  any  one  can  tell  what  a 
flaming  sword  is,)  belonging  altogether  to  the  second  story.  They 
have  no  connexion  with  the  first  story.  According  to  the  first 
there  was  no  garden  of  Eden  ;  no  forbidden  tree  :  the  scene  was 
the  whole  earth,  and  the  fruit  of  all  the  trees  was  allowed  to  be 
eaten. 

In  giving  this  example  of  the  strange  state  of  the  Bible,  it  can- 
not be  said  I  have  gone  out  of  my  way  to  seek  it,  for  I  have  taken 
the  beginning  of  the  book ;  nor  can  it  be  said  I  have  made  more 
of  it,  than  it  makes  of  itself.  That  there  are  two  stories  is  as  visible 
to  the  eye,  when  attended  to,  as  that  there  are  two  chapters,  and 
that  they  have  been  written  by  different  persons,  nobody  knows  by 
whom.  If  this  then  is  the  strange  condition  the  beginning  of  the 
Bible  is  in,  it  leads,  to  a  just  suspicion,  that  the  other  parts  are  no 
better,  and  consequently  it  becomes  every  man's  duty  to  examine 
the  case.  I  have  done  it  for  myself,  and  am  satisfied  that  the 
Bible  is  fabulous. 

Perhaps  I  shall  be  told  in  the  cant-language  of  the  day,  as  I 
have  often  been  told  by  the  Bishop  of  Llandaffand  others  of  the 
great  and  laudable  pains,  that  mauy  pious  and  learned  men  have 
taken  to  explain  the  obscure,  and  reconcile  the  contradictory,  or 


LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE.  175 

as  they  say,  the  seemingly  contradictory  passages  of  the  Bible.  It 
is  because  the  Bible  needs  such  an  undertaking,  that  is  one  of  the 
first  causes  to  suspect  it  is  not  the  word  of  God  :  this  single 
reflection,  when  carried  home  to  the  mind,  is  in  itself  a  volume. 

What !  does  not  the  Creator  of  the  Universe,  the  Fountain  of 
all  Wisdom,  the  Origin  of  all  Science,  the  Author  of  all  know- 
ledge, the  God  of  Order,  and  of  Harmony,  know  how  to  write  ? 
When  we  contemplate  the  vast  economy  of  the  creation  ;  when 
we  behold  the  unerring  regularity  of  the  visible  solar  system,  the 
perfection  with  which  all  its  several  parts  revolve,  and  by  corres 
ponding  assemblage,  form  a  whole  ; — when  we  launch  our  eye 
into  the  boundless  ocean  of  space,  and  see  ourselves  surrcxnded 
by  innumerable  worlds,  not  one  of  which  varies  from  its  appointed 
place — when  we  trace  the  power  of  the  Creator,  from  a  mite  to 
an  elephant — from  an  atom  to  an  universe — can  we  suppose  that 
the  mind  that  could  conceive  such  a  design,  and  the  power  that 
executed  it  with  incomparable  perfection,  cannot  write  without 
inconsistency  ;  or,  that  a  book  so  written,  can  be  the  work  of  such 
a  power  1  The  writings  of  Thomas  Paine,  even  of  Thomas  Paine, 
need  no  commentator  to  explain,  expound,  arrange,  and  re-arrange 
their  several  parts,  to  render  them  intelligible — he  can  relate  a 
fact,  or  write  an  essay,  without  forgetting  in  one  page  what  he  has 
written  in  an  other — certainly  then,  did  the  God  of  all  perfec- 
tion condescend  to  write  or  dictate  a  book,  that  book  would  be  as 
perfect  as  himself  is  perfect :  the  Bible  is  not  so,  and  it  is  con 
fessedly  not  so,  by  the  attempts  to  amend  it. 

Perhaps  I  shall  be  told,  that  though  I  have  produced  one  in- 
stance, I  cannot  produce  another  of  equal  force.  One  is  sufficient 
to  call  in  question  the  genuineness  or  authenticity  of  any  book  that 
pretends  to  be  the  word  of  God  ;  for  such  a  book  would,  as  before 
said,  be  as  perfect  as  its  author  is  perfect. 

I  will,  however,  advance  only  four  chapters  further  into  the 
book  of  Genesis,  and  produce  another  example  that  is  sufficient  to 
invalidate  the  story  to  which  it  belongs. 

We  have  all  heard  of  Noah's  Flood  ;  and  it  is  impossible  to 
think  of  the  whole  human  race,  men,  women,  children,  and  infants 
(except  one  family,)  deliberately  drowning,  without  feeling  a  pain- 
ful sensation  ;  that  heart  must  be  a  heart  of  flint  that  can  contem- 
plate such  a  scene  with  tranquillity.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
ancient  mythology,  nor  in  the  religion  of  any  people  we  know  of 


176  LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE. 

upon  the  globe,  that  records  a  sentence  of  their  God,  or  of 
their  Gods,  so  tremendously  severe  and  merciless.  If  the  story 
be  not  true,  we  blasphemously  dishonor  God  by  believing  it, 
and  still  more  so,  in  forcing,  by  laws  and  penalties,  that  belief 
upon  others.  I  go  now  to  show  from  the  face  of  the  story,  that  it 
carries  the  evidence  of  not  being  true. 

I  know  not  if  the  judge,  the  jury,  and  Mr.  Erskine,  who  tried 
and  convicted  Williams,  ever  read  the  Bible,  or  know  any  thing 
of  its  contents,  and,  therefore,  I  will  state  the  case  precisely. 

There  was  no  such  people  as  Jews  or  Israelites,  in  the  time 
that  Noah  is  said  to  have  lived,  and  consequently  there  was  no 
such  law  as  that  which  is  called  the  Jewish  or  Mosaic  Law.  It  is 
according  to  the  Bible,  more  than  six  hundred  years  from  the  time 
the  flood  is  said  to  have  happened,  to  the  lime  of  Moses,  and  con- 
sequently the  time  the  flood  is  said  to  have  happened,  was  more 
than  six  hundred  years  prior  to  the  law,  called  the  law  of  Moses, 
even  admitting  Moses  to  have  been  the  giver  of  that  law,  of  which 
there  is  great  cause  to  doubt. 

We  have  here  two  different  epochs,  or  points  of  time  ;  that  ol 
the  flood,  and  that  of  the  law  of  Moses  ;  the  former  more  than  six 
hundred  years  prior  to  the  latter.  But  the  maker  of  the  story  of 
the  flood,  whoever  he  was,  has  betrayed  himself  by  blundering,  for 
he  has  reversed  the  order  of  the  times.  He  has  told  the  story,  as 
if  the  law  of  Moses  was  prior  to  the  flood ;  for  he  has  made  God  to 
say  to  Noah,  Genesis,  chap.  vii.  ver.  2,  "  Of  every  clean  beast, 
thou  shalt  take  unto  thee  by  sevens,  male  and  his  female,  and  of 
beasts  that  are  not  clean  by  two,  the  male  and  his  female."  This 
is  the  Mosaic  law,  and  could  only  be  said  after  that  law  was 
given,  not  before.  There  was  no  such  things  as  beasts  clean 
and  unclean  in  the  time  of  Noah — It  is  no  where  said  they  were 
created  so. — They  were  only  declared  to  be  so,  as  meats,  by  the 
Mosaic  law,  and  that  to  the  Jews  only,  and  there  was  no  such 
people  as  Jews  in  the  time  of  Noah.  This  is  the  blundering 
condition  in  which  this  strango  story  stands. 

When  we  reflect  on  a  sentence  so  tremendously  severe,  as  that 
of  consigning  the  whole  human  race,  eight  persons  excepted,  to 
deliberate  drowning  ;  a  sentence,  which  represents  the  Creator  in 
a  more  merciless  character  than  any  of  those  whom  we  call  Pa- 
gans, ever  represented  the  Creator  to  be,  under  the  figure  of  any 
of  their  deities,  we  ought  at  least  to  suspend  our  belief  of  it,  on  a 


LETTHR  TO   MR.  ERSKINE.  177 

comparison  of  the  beneficent  character  of  the  Creator,  with  the 
tremendous  severity  of  the  sentence  ;  but  when  we  see  the  story 
told  with  such  an  evident  contradiction  of  circumstances,  we 
ought  to  set  it  down  for  nothing  better  than  a  Jewish  fable,  told 
by  nobody  knows  whom,  and  nobody  knows  when. 

It  is  a  relief  to  the  genuine  and  sensible  soul  of  man  to  find 
the  story  unfounded.  It  frees  us  from  two  painful  sensations 
at  once ;  that  of  having  hard  thoughts  of  the  Creator,  on  ac- 
count of  the  severity  of  the  sentence  ;  and  that  of  sympathising 
in  the  horrid  tragedy  of  a  drowning  world.  He  who  cannot 
feel  the  force  of  what  I  mean,  is  not,  in  my  estimation  of  cha- 
racter, worthy  the  name  of  a  human  being. 

I  have  just  said  there  is  great  cause  to  doubt,  if  the  law,  called 
the  law  of  Moses,  was  given  by  Moses ;  the  books  called  the 
books  of  Moses,  which  contain,  among  other  things,  what  is 
called  the  Mosaic  law,  are  put  in  front  of  the  Bible,  in  the  man- 
ner of  a  constitution,  with  a  history  annexed  to  it.  Had  these 
books  been  written  by  Moses,  they  would  undoubtedly  have 
been  the  oldest  books  in  the  Bible,  and  entitled  to  be  placed 
first,  and  the  law  and  the  history  they  contain,  would  be  fre- 
quently referred  to  in  the  books  that  follow  ;  but  this  is  not  the 
case.  From  the  time  of  Othniel,  the  first  of  the  judges,  (Judges, 
chap.  iii.  ver.  9,)  to  the  end  of  the  book  of  Judges,  which  con- 
tains a  period  of  four  hundred  and  ten  years,  this  law,  and  those 
books,  were  not  in  practice,  nor  known  among  the  Jews,  nor 
are  they  so  much  as  alluded  to  throughout  the  whole  of  that 
period.  And  if  the  reader  will  examine  the  22d  and  23d  chap- 
ters of  the  3d  book  of  Kings,  and  34th  chapter  2d  Chron.  he 
will  find  that  no  such  law,  nor  any  such  books,  were  known  rn 
the  time  of  the  Jewish  monarchy,  and  that  the  Jews  were  Pa- 
gans during  the  whole  of  that  time,  and  of  their  judges. 

The  first  time  the  law,  called  the  law  of  Moses,  made  its  aj)- 
pearance,  was  in  the  time  of  Josiah,  about  a  thousand  years  after 
Moses  was  dead  ;  it  is  then  said  to  have  been  found  by  accident. 
The  account  of  this  finding,  or  pretended  finding,  is  given  2d 
Chron.  chap,  xxxiv.  ver.  14,  15,  16,  18:  "  Hilkrah  the  priest 
found  the  book  of  the  law  of  the  Lord,  given  by  Moses,  and 
Hilkiah  answered  and  said  to  Shaphan  the  scribe,  I  have  found 
the  book  of  the  law  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  Hilkiah  de- 
livered the  book  to  Shaphan,  and  Shaphan  earned  the  book  ta 


178  LETTER  TO  MR.  ERSKINE. 

the  king,  and  Shaphan  told  the  king,  (Josiah,)  saying,  Hilkiah 
the  priest  hath  given  me  a  book." 

In  consequence  of  this  finding,  which  much  resembles  that  of 
poor  Chatterton  finding  manuscript  poems  of  Rowley,  the  monk, 
in  the  cathedral  church  at  Bristol,  or  the  late  finding  of  manu- 
scripts of  Shakspeare  in  an  old  chest,  (two  well  known  frauds,) 
Josiah  abolished  the  Pagan  religion  of  the  Jews,  massacred  all  the 
Pagan  priests,  though  he  himself  had  been  a  Pagan,  as  the  reader 
will  see  in  the  23d  chap.  2d  Kings,  and  thus  established  in  blood, 
the  law  that  is  there  called  the  law  of  Moses,  and  instituted  a  pass 
over  in  commemoration  thereof.  The  22d  verse,  speaking  of  this 
passover,  says,  "  Surely  there  was  not  held  such  a  passover  from 
the  days  of  the  judges,  that  judged  Israel,  nor  in  all  the  days  of 
the  kings  of  Israel,  nor  the  kings  of  Judah ;"  and  the  25th  ver.  in 
speaking  of  this  priest-killing  Josiah,  says,  '■'■Like  nnto  him,  there 
was  no  king  before  him,  that  turned  to  the  Lord  with  all  his  heart, 
and  with  all  his  soul,  and  with  all  his  might,  according  to  all  the 
law  of  Moses ;  neither  after  him  arose  there  anylike  him.''''  This 
verse,  like  the  former  one,  is  a  general  declaration  against  all  the 
preceding  kings  without  exception.  It  is  also  a  declaration  against 
all  that  reigned  after  him,  of  which  there  were  four,  the  Avhole  time 
of  whose  reigning  makes  but  twenty-two  years  and  six  months, 
before  the  Jews  were  entirely  broken  up  as  a  nation  and  their 
monarchy  destroyed.  It  is,  therefore,  evident  that  the  law,  called 
the  law  of  Moses,  of  which  the  Jews  talk  so  much,  was  promul- 
gated and  established  only  in  the  latter  time  of  the  Jewish  monar- 
chy ;  and  it  is  very  remarkable,  that  no  sooner  had  they  establish- 
ed it  than  they  were  a  destroyed  people,  as  if  they  were  punished 
for  acting  an  imposition  and  affixing  the  name  of  the  Lord  to 
it,  and  massacreing  their  former  priests  under  the  pretence  of 
religion.  The  sum  of  the  history  of  the  Jews  is  this — they  con- 
tinued to  be  a  nation  about  a  thousand  years,  they  then  established 
a  law,  which  they  called  the  law  of  the  Lord  given  by  Moses,  and 
were  destroyed.    This  is  not  opinion,  but  historical  evidence. 

Levi  the  Jew,  who  has  written  an  answer  to  the  Age  of  Rea- 
son, gives  a  strange  account  of  the  law  called  the  law  of  Moses. 

In  speaking  of  the  story  of  the  sun  and  moon  standing  still,  that 
the  Israelites  might  cut  the  throats  of  all  their  enemies,  and  hang 
all  their  kings,  as  told  in  Joshua,  chap,  x.,  he  says,  "  There  is  also 
another  proof  of  the  reality  of  this  miracle,  which  is,  the  appeal 


LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE.  179 

that  the  author  of  the  book  of  Joshua  makes  to  the  book  of  Jasher, 
*'  75  not  this  written  in  the  book  of  Jasher  ?  Hence,"  continues 
Levi,  "  It  is  manifest  that  the  book  commonly  called  the  book  of 
Jasher,  existed,  and  was  well  known  at  the  time  the  book  of 
Joshua  was  written  ;  and  pray,  Sir,"  continues  Levi,  "  what  book 
do  you  think  this  was  ?  why,  no  other  than  the  law  of  Moses  /" 
Levi,  like  the  Bishop  of  LlandafF,  and  many  other  guess-work 
commentators,  either  forgets  or  does  not  know,  what  there  is  in 
one  part  of  the  Bible,  w^hen  he  is  giving  his  opinion  upon  another 
part. 

I  did  not,  however,  expect  to  find  so  much  ignorance  in  a  Jew, 
with  respect  to  the  history  of  his  nation,  though  I  might  not  be 
surprised  at  it  in  a  bishop.  If  Levi  will  look  into  the  account 
given  in  the  first  chap.  2d  book  of  Sam.  of  the  Amalakite  slaying 
Saul,  and  bringing  the  crown  and  bracelets  to  David,  he  will  find 
the  following  recital,  ver.  15,  17,  18  :  "  And  David  called  one  of 
the  young  men,  and  said,  go  near  and  fall  upon  him,  (the  Amala- 
kite,) and  he  smote  him  that  he  died  :  and  David  lamented  with 
this  lamentation  over  Saul  and  over  Jonathan  his  son  ;  also  he 
bade  them  teach  the  children  the  use  of  the  bow  ; — behold  it  is 
written  in  the  book  of  Jasher ^  If  the  book  of  Jasher  were  what 
Levi  calls  it,  the  law  of  Moses,  written  by  Moses,  it  is  not  pos- 
sible that  any  thing  that  David  said  or  did  could  be  written  in  that 
law,  since  Moses  died  more  than  five  hundred  years  before  David 
■was  born;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  admitting  the  book  of  Jasher 
to  be  the  law  called  the  law  of  Moses  ;  that  law  must  have  been 
written  more  than  five  hundred  years  after  Moses  was  dead,  or  it 
could  not  relate  any  thing  said  or  done  by  David.  Levi  may  take 
which  of  these  cases  he  pleases,  for  both  are  against  him. 

I  am  not  going  in  the  course  of  this  letter  to  write  a  commentary 
on  the  Bible.  The  two  instances  I  have  produced,  and  which 
are  taken  from  the  beginning  of  the  Bible,  show  the  necessity  of 
examining  it.  It  is  a  book  that  has  been  read  more,  and  examined 
less,  than  any  book  that  ever  existed.  Had  it  come  to  us  an 
Arabic  or  Chinese  book,  and  said  to  have  been  a  sacred  book  by 
the  people  from  whom  it  came,  no  apology  would  have  been  made 
for  the  confused  and  disorderly  state  it  is  in.  The  tales  it  relates 
of  the  Creator  would  have  been  censured,  and  our  pity  excited  for 
those  who  believed  them.  We  should  have  vindicated  the  good- 
ness  of  God  against  such  a  book,  and  preached  up  the  disbelief  of 


180  LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE. 

it  out  of  reverenc<5  to  him.  "Why  then  do  we  not  act  as  honourably 
by  the  Creator  in  the  one  case  as  we  would  do  in  the  other.  As 
a  Chinese  book  we  would  have  examined  it ; — ought  we  not  then 
to  examine  it  as  a  Jewish  book  ?  The  Chinese  are  a  people  who 
have  all  the  appearance  of  far  greater  antiquity  than  the  Jews,  and 
in  point  of  permanency,  there  is  no  comparison.  They  are  also  a 
people  of  mild  manners  and  good  morals,  except  where  they  have 
been  corrupted  by  European  commerce.  Yet  we  take  the  word 
of  a  restless,  bloody-minded  people,  as  the  Jews  of  Palestine 
were,  when  we  would  reject  the  same  authority  from  a  better 
people.  We  ought  to  see  it  is  habit  and  prejudice  that  have  pre- 
vented people  from  examining  the  Bible.  Those  of  the  church  of 
England  call  it  holy,  because  the  Jews  called  it  so,  and  because 
custom  and  certain  acts  of  parhament  call  it  so,  and  they  read  it 
from  custom.  Dissenters  read  it  for  the  purpose  of  doctrinal 
controversy,  and  are  very  fertile  in  discoveries  and  inventions. 
But  none  of  them  read  it  for  the  pure  purpose  of  information,  and 
of  rendermg  justice  to  the  Creator,  by  examining  if  the  evidence  it 
contains  warrants  the  belief  of  its  being  what  it  is  called.  Instead 
of  doing  this,  they  take  it  blindfolded,  and  will  have  it  to  be  the 
word  of  God  whether  it  be  so  or  not.  For  my  own  part,  my  belief 
in  the  perfection  of  the  Deity  will  not  permit  me  to  believe,  that  a 
book  so  manifestly  obscure,  disorderly,  and  contradictory,  can  be 
his  work.  I  can  write  a  better  book  myself.  This  disbelief  in 
me  proceeds  from  my  belief  in  the  Creator.  I  cannot  pin  my  faith 
upon  the  say  so  of  Hilkiah,  the  priest,  who  said  he  found  it,  or  any 
part  of  it,  nor  upon  Shaphan  the  scribe,  nor  upon  any  priests,  nor 
any  scribe  or  man  of  the  law  of  the  present  day. 

As  to  acts  of  parliament,  there  are  some  that  say  there  are 
witches  and  wizards  ;  and  the  persons  who  made  those  acts,  (it 
■was  in  the  time  of  James  the  First,)  made  also  some  acts  which 
call  the  Bible  the  Holy  Scriptures,  or  Word  of  God.  But  acts  oi 
parliament  decide  nothing  with  respect  to  God  ;  and  as  these  acts 
of  parliament  making  were  wrong  with  respect  to  Avitches  and 
wizards,  they  may  also  be  wrong  with  respect  to  the  book  in 
question.*     It  is,  therefore,  necessary  that  the  book  be  examined ; 

*  It  is  afflicting  to  humanity  to  reflect  that,  after  the  blood  shed  to  estab 
lish  the  divinity  of  the  Jewish  scriptures,  it  should  have  become  necessary 
to  grant  a  new  dispensation,  which,  through  unbelief  and  conflicting  opin 
ions  respecting  its  true  construction,  has  cost  as  great  or  greater  sacrificos 
than  the  former.     Catholics,  when  they  had  the  ascendancy,  burnt  Protcs- 


LETTER  TO  MR.  ERSKINE.  181 

it  is  our  duty  to  examine  it ;  and  to  suppress  the  right  of  examina- 
tion is  sinful  in  any  government,  or  in  any  judge  or  jury.  The 
Bible  makes  God  to  say  to  Moses,  Deut.  chap.  vii.  ver.  2,  "  And 

tants,  who,  in  turn,  led  Catholics  to  the  stake,  and  both  united  in  extermina- 
ting Dissenters.  The  Dissenters,  when  they  had  the  power,  pursued  the 
same  course.  The  diabolical  act  of  Calvin,  in  the  burning  of  Dr.  Servetus, 
is  an  awful  witness  of  this  fact.  Servetus  suffered  two  hours  in  a  slow  fire 
before  life  was  extinct.  The  Dissenters,  who  escaped  from  England,  had 
scared}'  seated  themselves  in  the  wilds  of  America,  before  they  began  to 
exterminate  from  the  territory  they  had  seized  upon,  all  those  who  did  not 
profess  what  they  called  the  orthodox  faith.  Priests,  Ctiiakers,  and  Adam- 
ites, were  prohibited  from  entering  the  territory,  on  pain  of  death.  By 
priests,  they  meant  clergymen  of  the  Roman  Catholic,  if  not  also  of  the 
Protestant  or  Episcopal  persuasion.  Their  own  priests  they  denominated 
ministers.  These  puritans  also,  particularly  in  the  province  of  Massachu- 
setts-Bay, put  many  persons  to  death  on  the  charge  of  witchcraft.  There 
is  no  account,  however,  of  their  having  burned  any  alive,  as  was  done  in 
Scotland,  about  the  same  period  in  which  the  executions  took  place  in  Mas- 
sachusetts-Bay. In  England,  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  a  judge  eminent  for  ex- 
traordinary piety,  condemned  two  women  to  death  on  the  same  charge. 

I  doubt,  however,  if  there  be  any  acts  of  the  parliament  now  in  force  for 
inflicting  pains  and  penalties  for'denying  the  scriptures  to  be  the  word  of 
God,  as  our  upright  judges  seem  to  rely  at  this  time  wholly  upon  what  they 
call,  the  common  law,  to  justify  the  horrid  persecutions  which  are  now  car- 
ried on  in  England,  to  the  disgrace  of  a  country  that  boasts  so  much  of  its 
tolerant  spirit. 

As  the  common  law  is  derived  from  the  customs  of  our  ancestors,  when 
in  a  rude  and  barbarous  condition,  it  is  not  surprising  that  many  of  its  in- 
junctions should  be  opposed  to  the  ideas,  which  a  society  in  a  civilized  and 
refined  state,  should  deem  compatible  with  justice  and  right.  Accordingly 
we  find  that  government  has  from  time  to  time  annulled  some  of  its  most 
prominent  absurdities;  such  as  the  trials  by  ordeal,  the  wager  of  battle  in 
case  of  appeal  for  murder,  under  a  belief  that  a  supernatural  power  would 
interfere  to  save  the  innocent  and  destroy  the  guilty  in  such  a  combat,  &c. 
Yet  much  remains  nearly  as  ridiculous,  that  requires  a  further  and  more 
liberal  use  of  the  pruning  knife. 

"  In  the  days  of  the  Stuarts,  [A.  D.  1670,  22d  year  of  Charles  II.  See  the 
Republican,  vol.  5,  p.  22.]  William  Penn  was  indicted  at  Common  Law  for 
a  riot  and  breach  of  the  peace  on  having  delivered  his  sentiments  to  a  con- 
gregation of  people  in  Grace-church-street:  he  told  the  judge  and  the  jury 
that  Common  Law  was  an  abuse,  and  no  law  at  all ;  and  in  spite  of  the 
threats,  the  fines  and  imprisonments  inflicted  on  his  jury,  they  acquitted  him 
on  this  plea.     William  Penn  found  an  honest  jury." 

The  introduction,  however,  of  Christianity,  as  composing  a  part  of  this 
Common  Law,  (bad  as  much  of  it  is,)  is  proved  to  be  a  fraud  or  misconcep- 
tion of  the  old  Norman  French;  as  I  shall  show  by  an  extract  of  a  letter 
from  Thomas  Jefferson  to  Major  Cartwright,  bearing  date  5th  June,  1824. 

For  a  more  full  developement  of  this  subject,  see  Sampson's  Anniversary 
Discourse,  before  the  Historical  Society  of  New- York.  Editor. 

Extract  from.  Jefferson's  Letter. 

"  I  am  glad  to  find  in  your  book  [The  English  Constitution,  produced  and 
illustrated]  a  formal  contradiction,  at  length,  of  the  judiciary  usurpation  of 
legislative  power;  for  such  the  judges  have  usurped  in  their  repeated  deci- 
sions, that  Christianity  is  a  part  of  the  common  lavK  Theproof  of  the  contrary, 
which  you  have  adduced,  is  incontrovertible:  to  wit,  that  the  common  law 
existed  while  the  Anglo-Saxons  were  yet  Pagans;  at  a  time  when  they  had 
never  yet  heard  the  name  of  Christ  pronounced,  or  Imew  that  such  a  character 
had  ever  existed.  But  it  may  amuse  you  to  show  when,  and  by  what  means, 
they  stole  this  law  in  upon  us.  In  acase  of  duarelmpedit,  in  the  Year  Book, 
34  Henry  VI.  fo.  28,  [Anno  1458,]  a  question  was  made  how  far  the  eccle- 
siastical law  w  a-s  to  be  respected  in  a  common  law  court.    And  Prisol,  Chief 


182  LETTER  TO  MR.  ERSKINE. 

when  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  deliver  them  before  thee,  thou  shalt 
smite  them,  and  utterly  destroy  them,  thou  shalt  make  no  cove- 
nant with  them,  nor  show  mercy  unto  them.''''  Not  all  the  priests, 
nor  scribes,  nor  tribunals  in  the  world,  nor  all  the  authority  of 
man,  shall  make  me  believe  that  God  ever  gave  such  a  Rohesperi- 
an  precept  as  that  of  showing  no  mercy;  and  consequently  it  is 
impossible  that  I,  or  any  person  who  believes  as  reverentially  of 
the  Creator  as  I  do,  can  believe  such  a  book  to  be  the  word  of  God. 

Justice,  gave  his  opinion  in  these  words: — 'A  tiel  leis,  que  ils  de  saint  eglise 
ont  en  ancien  scripture,  covient  a  nous  a  donner  credence :  cal  ceo  Commen 
Ley  sur  quels  touts  manners  leis  sont  foddes.  Et  auxy,  Sir,  nous  sumus 
obliges  de  conustre  lour  ley  de  saint  eglise  :  et  semblabiement  lis  sont  obliges 
de  conustre  nostre  ley — Et,  Sir,  si  poit  apperer  or  a  nous  que  I'evesque  adfait 
come  un  ordinary  fera  en  tiel  cas,  adong  nous  devons  ceo  adjuger  bon,  ou 
autennenl  nemy,' "  &c.  ["  To  such  laws  as  they  of  holy  church  have  in  an- 
cient writing,  it  behoves  us  to  give  credence  :  for  it  is  that  common  law  upon 
which  all  kinds  of  law  are  founded ;  and  therefore.  Sir,  are  we  bound  to 
know  their  law  of  holy  church,  and  in  like  manner  are  they  obliged  to  know 
our  laws.  And,  Sir,  if  it  should  appear  now  to  us,  that  the  bishop  had  done 
what  an  ordinary  ought  to  do  in  like  case,  then  we  should  adjudge  it  good, 
and  not  otherwise."] — The  canons  of  the  church  anciently  were  incorporated 
with  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  of  the  same  authority.  See  Dr.  Henry's 
Hist.  G.  Britain.  Editor. 

See  S.  C.  Fitzh.  abr.  qu.  imp.  89.  Bro.  abr.  qu.  imp.  12.  Finch  in  his  1st  Book, 
c._3,  is  the  first  afterwards  who  quotes  the  case,  and  mis-states  it  thus:  "  '  To 
siich  laws  of  the  church  as  have  warrant  in  Holy  Scripture,  our  law  giveth  cre- 
dence,' and  cites  Prisot ;  mistranslating  '  ancient  Scripture'  into  '  holy  Scrip- 
ture;' whereas  Prisot  palpably  says,  'so  such  laws  as  those  of  holy" church 
have  in  ancient  writing,  it  is  proper  for  us  to  give  credence ;'  to  wit — to  their 
a7icient  written  laws.  This  was  in  1613,  a  century  and  a  half  after  the  dictum 
of  Prisot.  Wingate,  in  1658,  erects  this  false  translation  into  a  maxim  of 
the  common  law,  copying  the  words  of  Finch,  but  citing  Prisot.  Wingate, 
max.  3,  and  Sheppard,  title  'Religion,'  in  1675,  copies  the  same  mistransla- 
tion, quoting  the  Y.  B.  Finch  and  Wingate.  Hale  expresses  it  in  these 
words :  '  Christianity  is  parcel  of  the  law  of  England' — 1  Venlris  293.  3  Keb. 
607,  but  quotes  no  authority.  By  these  echoings  and  re-echoings  from  one  to 
another,  it  had  become  so  established  in  1728,  that  in  the  ca.se  of  the  King  vs. 
Woolston,  2  Stra.  834,  the  court  would  not  suffer  it  to  be  debated,  whether 
to  write  against  Christianity  was  punishable  in  the  temporal  court  at  com- 
mon law. "  Wood,  therefore,  409,  ventures  still  to  vary  the  phrase,  and  say, 
'that  all  blasphemy  and  profaneness  are  offences  by  the  common  law;'  and 
cites  2  Stra. — Then  Blackstone,  in  1763,  iv.  59,  repeats  the  words  of  Hale, 
that  '  Christianity  is  part  of  the  law  of  England,'  citing  Ventris  and  Strange. 
And  finally.  Lord  Mansfield,  with  a  little  qualification,  in  Evan's  case  in 
1767,  says,  that  'the  essential  principles  of  revealed  religion  are  part  of  the 
common  law' — thus  ingulfing  Bible,  Testament,  and  all  into  the  common 
law,  without  citing  any  authority.  And  thus  we  find  this  chain  of  authorities 
hanging,  link  by  link,  one  upon  another,  and  all  ultimately  on  one  and  the 
same  hook,  and  that  a  mistranslation  of  the  words  '■  ancient  scripture,^  used  by 
Prisot.  Finch  quotes  Prisot ;  Wingate  does  the  same ;  Sheppard  quotes  Prisot, 
Finch,  and  Wingate.  Hale  cites  nobody.  The  court,  on  Woolston's  case, 
cites  Hale ;  Wood  cites  Woolston's  case ;' Blackstone  quotes  Woolston's  case 
and  Hale;  and  Lord  Mansfield,  like  Hale,  ventures  it  on  his  own  authority. 
Here  I  might  defy  the  best  read  lawyer  to  produce  another  scrip  of  author- 
ity for  thi-i  judiciary  forgery ;  and  I  might  go  on  farther  to  sliow  how  some 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  priests  interpolated  into  the  text  of  Alfred's  laws  the 
20th,  21st,  22d,  and  23d  chapters  of  Exodus,  and  the  loth  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  from  the  23d  to  the  29th  verses;  but  this  would  lead  my  pen,  and 
your  patience  too  far.    What  a  conspiracy  this,  between  church  and  state !' " 


LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKIXE.  183 

There  have  been,  and  still  are,  those,  who,  whilst  they  profess 
io  believe  the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of  God,  affect  to  turn  it  into 
ridicule.  Taking  their  profession  and  conduct  together,  they  act 
blasphemously  ;  because  they  act  as  if  God  himself  was  not  to  be 
believed.  The  case  is  exceedingly  different  with  respect  to  the 
Age  of  Reason.  That  book  is  written  to  show  from  the  Bible  it- 
self, that  there  is  abundant  matter  to  suspect  it  is  not  the  word  of 
God,  and  that  we  have  been  imposed  upon,  first  by  Jews,  and  af- 
terwards by  priests  and  commentators. 

Not  one  of  those  who  have  attempted  to  write  answers  to  the 
Age  of  Reaso)i,  have  taken  the  ground  upon  which  only  an  answer 
could  be  written.  The  case  in  question  is  not  upon  any  point  of 
doctrine,  but  altogether  upon  a  matter  of  fact.  Is  the  book  call- 
ed the  Bible  the  word  of  God,  or  is  it  not?  If  it  can  be  proved 
to  be  so,  it  ought  to  be  believed  as  such  ;  if  not,  it  ought  not  to 
be  believed  as  such.  This  is  the  true  state  of  the  case.  The 
Age  of  Reason  produces  evidence  to  show,  and  I  have  in  this  let- 
ter produced  additional  evidence,  that  it  is  not  the  word  of  God. 
Those  who  take  the  contrary  side,  should  prove  that  it  is.  But 
this  they  have  not  done,  nor  attempted  to  do,  and  consequently 
they  have  done  nothing  to  the  purpose. 

The  prosecutors  of  Williants  have  shrunk  from  the  point,  as  the 
answerers  have  done.  They  have  availed  themselves  of  prejudice 
instead  of  proof.  If  a  writing  was  produced  in  a  court  of  judica- 
ture, said  to  be  the  writing  of  a  certain  person,  and  upon  the  rea- 
lity or  non-reality  of  which,  some  matter  at  issue  depended,  the 
point  to  be  proved  would  be,  that  such  writing  was  the  writing  of 
such  person.  Or  if  the  issue  depended  upon  certain  words,  which 
some  certain  person  was  said  to  have  spoken,  the  point  to  be  pro- 
ved would  be,  that  such  words  were  spoken  by  such  person  ;  and 
Mr.  Erskine  would  contend  the  case  upon  this  ground.  A  certain 
book  is  said  to  be  the  word  of  God.  What  is  the  proof  that  it  is 
so  1  for  upon  this  the  whole  depends  ;  and  if  it  cannot  be  proved 
to  be  so,  the  prosecution  fails  for  want  of  evidence. 

The  prosecution  against  Williams  charges  him  with  publishing 
a  book,  entitled  The  Age  of  Reason,  which  it  says,  is  an  impious 
blasphemous  pamphlet,  tending  to  ridicule  and  bring  into  contempt 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  Nothing  is  more  easy  than  to  find  abusive 
words,  and  English  prosecutions  are  famous  for  this  species  of 
vulgarity.     The  charge  however,  is  sophistical ;  for  the  charge. 


184  LETTER  TO  MR.  ERSKINE. 

as  growing  out  of  the  pamphlet,  should  have  stated,  not  as  it  now 
states,  to  ridicule  and  bring  into  contempt  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
but  to  show,  that  the  book  called  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  not 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  It  is  one  thing  if  I  ridicule  a  work  as 
being  written  by  a  certain  person ;  but  it  is  quite  a  different 
thing  if  I  write  to  prove  that  such  work  was  not  written  by 
such  person.  In  the  first  case,  I  attack  the  person  through 
the  work  ;  in  the  other  case,  I  defend  the  honor  of  the  person 
against  the  work.  This  is  what  the  Age  of  Reason  does,  and 
consequently  the  charge  in  the  indictment  is  sophistically  stated. 
Every  one  will  admit,  that  if  the  Bible  be  not  the  word  of  God, 
we  err  in  believing  it  to  be  his  word,  and  ought  not  to  believe 
it.  Certainly,  then,  the  ground  the  prosecution  should  take, 
would  be  to  prove  that  the  Bible  is  in  fact  what  it  is  called. 
But  this  the  prosecution  has  not  done,  and  cannot  do. 

In  all  cases  the  prior  fact  must  be  proved,  before  the  subse- 
quent facts  can  be  admitted  in  evidence.  In  a  prosecution  for 
adultery,  the  fact  of  marriage,  which  is  the  prior  fact,  must  be 
proved,  before  the  facts  to  prove  adultery  can  be  received.  If 
the  fact  ofmarriage  cannot  be  proved,  adultery  cannot  be  proved; 
and  if  the  prosecution  cannot  prove  the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of 
God,  the  charge  of  blasphemy  is  visionary  and  groundless. 

In  Turkey  they  might  prove,  if  the  case  happened,  that  a 
certain  book  was  bought  of  a  certain  bookseller,  and  that  the 
said  book  was  written  against  the  Koran.  In  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal they  might  prove,  that  a  certain  book  was  bought  of  a 
certain  bookseller,  and  that  the  said  book  was  written  against 
the  infallibility  of  the  Pope.  Under  the  ancient  mythology  they 
might  have  proved,  that  a  certain  writing  was  bought  of  a  cer- 
tain person,  and  that  the  said  writing  was  written  against  the 
belief  of  a  plurality  of  gods,  and  in  the  support  of  the  belief  of 
one  God.     Socrates  was  condemned  for  a  work  of  this  kind. 

All  these  are  but  subsequent  facts,  and  amount  to  nothing,  un- 
less the  prior  facts  be  proved.  The  prior  fact,  with  respect  to  the 
first  case,  is.  Is  the  Koran  the  word  of  God  ?  With  respect  to  the 
second,  Is  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope  a  truth  ?  With  respect  to 
the  third.  Is  the  belief  of  a  plurality  of  gods  a  true  belief?  and  in 
like  manner  with  respect  to  the  present  prosecution,  Is  thetjook 
called  the  Bible  the  word  of  God?  If  the  present  prosecution 
prove  no  more  than  could  be  proved  in  any  or  all  of  these  cases, 


LETTER    TO    MR.    ER3KINE.  1S5 

it  proves  only  as  they  do,  or  as  an  inquisition  would  prove  ;  and 
in  this  view  of  the  case,  the  prosecutors  ought  at  least  to  leave 
off  reviling  that  infernal  institution,  the  inquisition.  The  prosecu- 
tion, however,  though  it  may  injure  the  individual,  may  promote 
the  cause  of^truth  ;  because  the  manner  in  Avhich  it  has  been  con- 
ducted, appears  a  confession  to  the  world,  that  there  is  no  evi- 
dence to  prove  that  the  Bible  is  the  word  of  God.  On  what  au- 
thority then  do  we  believe  the  many  strange  stories  that  the  Bible 
tells  of  God 

This  prosecution  has  been  carried  on  through  the  medium  of 
what  is  called  a  special  jury,  and  the  whole  of  a  special  jury  is 
nominated  by  the  master  of  the  crown  office.  Mr.  Erskine  vaunts 
himself  upon  the  bill  he  brought  into  parliament  with  respect  to 
trials,  for  what  the  government  party  calls  libels.  But  if  in  crown 
prosecutions,  the  master  of  the  crown  office  is  to  continue  to  ap- 
point the  whole  special  jury,  which  he  does  by  nominating  the  for- 
ty-eight persons  from  which  the  solicitor  of  each  party  is  to  strike 
out  twelve,  Mr.  Erskine's  bill  is  only  vapour  and  smoke.  The 
root  of  the  grievance  lies  in  the  manner  of  forming  the  jury,  and 
to  this  Mr.  Erskine's  bill  applies  no  remedy. 

When  the  trial  of  Williams  came  on,  only  eleven  of  the  special 
jurymen  appeared,  and  the  trial  was  adjourned.  In  cases  where 
the  whole  number  do  not  appear,  it  is  customary  to  make  up  the 
deficiency  by  taking  jurymen  from  persons  present  in  court.  This, 
in  the  law  term,  is  called  a  Tales.  Why  was  not  this  done  in  this 
case  1  Reason  will  suggest,  that  they  did  not  choose  to  depend  on 
a  man  accidentally  taken.  When  the  trial  re-commenced,  the 
whole  of  the  special  jury  appeared,  and  Williams  was  convicted  ; 
it  is  folly  to  contend  a  cause  where  the  whole  jury  is  nominated  by 
one  of  the  parties.  I  will  relate  a  recent  case  that  explains  a  great 
deal  with  respect  to  special  juries  in  crown  prosecutions. 

On  the  trial  of  Lambert  and  others,  printers  and  proprietors  of 
the  Morning  Chronicle,  for  a  libel,  a  special  jury  was  struck,  on 
the  prayer  of  the  Attorney-General,  who  used  to  be  called  Diabo- 
lus  Regis,  or  King's  Devil. 

Only  seven  or  eight  of  the  special  jury  appeared,  and  the  Attor- 
ney General  not  praying  a  Tales,  the  trial  stood  over  to  a  future 
day  ;  when  it  was  to  be  brought  on  a  second  time,  the  Attorney- 
General  prayed  for  a  new  special  jury,  but  as  this  was  not  admis- 
sible, the  original  special  jury  was  summoned.  Only  eight  of  thera 
24 


186  LETTER    TO    MR.    EUSKINE. 

appeared,  on  which  the  Attorney-General  said,  "  As  I  cannot,  on 
a  second  trial,  have  a  special  jury,  I  will  pray  a  Talesy  Four 
persons  were  then  taken  from  the  persons  present  in  court,  and 
added  to  the  eight  special  jurymen.  The  jury  went  out  at  two 
o'clock  to  consult  on  their  verdict,  and  the  judge  (Kenyon)  un- 
derstanding they  were  divided,  and  likely  to  be  some  time  in  mak- 
ing up  their  minds,  retired  from  the  bench,  and  went  home.  At 
seven,  the  jury  went,  attended  by  an  officer  of  the  court,  to  the 
Judge's  house,  and  delivered  a  verdict,  "  Guilty  of  puhlishiiig,  but 
with  no  malicious  intention.'"  The  Judge  said,  "  /  cannot  record 
this  verdict :  it  is  no  verdict  at  all."  The  jury  withdrew,  and  af- 
ter sitting  in  consultation  till  five  in  the  morning,  brought  in  a  ver- 
dict, Not  Guilty.  Would  this  have  been  the  case,  had  they  been 
all  special  jurymen  nominated  by  the  Master  of  the  Crown-office  ? 
This  is  one  of  the  cases  that  ought  to  open  the  eyes  of  people  with 
respect  to  the  manner  of  forming  special  juries. 

On  the  trial  of  Williams,  the  Judge  preven.ted  the  counsel  for 
the  defendant  proceeding  in  the  defence.  The  prosecution  had 
selected  a  number  of  passages  from  the  Age  of  Reason,  and  in- 
serted them  in  the  indictment.  The  defending  counsel  was  se- 
lecting other  passages  to  show,  that  the  passages  in  the  indictment 
were  conclusions  drawn  from  premises,  and  unfairly  separated 
therefrom  in  the  indictment.  The  Judge  said,  he  did  not  know 
how  to  act ;  meaning  thereby  whether  to  let  the  counsel  proceed 
m  the  defence  or  not,  and  asked  the  jury  if  they  wished  to  hear  the 
passages  read  which  the  defending  counsel  had  selected.  The  ju- 
ry said  NO,  and  the  defending  counsel  was  in  consequence  silent. 
Mr.  Erskine  then,  Falstaff  like,  having  all  the  field  to  himself,  and 
no  enemy  at  hand,  laid  about  him  most  heroically,  and  the  jury 
found  the  defendant  guilty-  I  know  not  if  Mr.  Erskine  ran  out 
of  court  and  hallooed,  huzza  for  the  Bible  and  the  trial  by  jury. 

Robespierre  caused  a  decree  to  be  passed  during  the  trial  of 
Brissot  and  others,  that  after  a  trial  had  lasted  three  days,  (the 
whole  of  which  time,  in  the  case  of  Brissot,  was  taken  up  by  the 
prosecuting  party,)  the  judge  should  ask  the  jury  (who  were  then 
a  packed  jury)  if  they  were  satisfied?  If  the  jury  said  yes,  the 
trial  ended,  and  the  jury  proceeded  to  give  their  verdict,  without 
hearing  the  defence  of  the  accused  party.  It  needs  no  depth  of 
wisdom  to  make  an  application  of  this  case. 


LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE.  187 

I  will  now  state  a  case  to  show  that  the  trial  of  Williams  is  not  a 
trial,  according  to  Kenyon's  own  explanation  of  law. 

On  a  late  trial  in  London  (Selthens  versus  Hoossman)  on  a  pol- 
icy of  insurance,  one  of  the  jurymen,  Mr.  Dunnage,  after  hearing 
one  side  of  the  case,  and  without  hearing  the  other  side,  got  up  and 
said,  it  ivas  as  legal  a  policy  of  insurance  as  ever  was  written.  The 
Judge,  who  was  the  same  as  presided  on  the  trial  of  Williams,  re- 
plied, that  it  was  a  great  misfortune  when  amj  gentleman  of  the  ju- 
ry makes  up  his  mind  on  a  cause  before  it  was  finished.  Mr.  Ers- 
kine,  who  in  that  cause  was  counsel  for  the  defendant,  (in  this  he 
was  against  the  defendant,)  cried  out,  it  is  worse  than  a  misfortune^ 
it  is  a  faidt.  The  Judge,  in  his  address  to  the  jury  in  summing 
up  the  evidence,  expatiated  upon,  and  explained  the  parts  which 
the  law  assigned  to  the  counsel  on  each  side,  to  the  witnesses,  and 
to  the  Judge,  and  said,  "  When  all  this  xvas  done,  and  not  until  then, 
it  tvas  the  business  of  the  jury  to  declare  ivhat  the  justice  of  the  case 
loas  ;  and  that  it  was  extremely  rash  and  imprudent  in  any  man  to 
draw  a  conclusion  before  all  the  premises  were  laid  before  them, 
upon  xi'hich  that  conclusion  tuas  to  be  grounded."  According  then 
to  Kenyon's  own  doctrine,  the  trial  of  Williams  is  an  irregular  tri- 
al, the  verdict  an  irregular  verdict,  and  as  such  is  not  recordable. 

As  to  special  juries,  they  are  but  modern ;  and  were  instituted 
for  the  purpose  of  determining  cases  at  laiu  between  merchants  ; 
because,  as  the  method  of  keeping  merchants' accounts  differs  from 
that  of  common  tradesmen,  and  their  business,  by  lying  much  in 
foreign  bills  of  exchange,  insurance,  &c.,  is  of  a  different  descrip- 
tion to  that  of  common  tradesmen,  it  might  happen  that  a  common 
jury  might  not  be  competent  to  form  ajudgment.  The  law  that 
instituted  special  juries,  makes  it  necessary  that  the  jurors  be 
merchants,  or  of  the  degree  of  squires.  A  special  jury  in  London 
is  generally  composed  of  merchants;  and  in  the  country,  of  men 
called  country  squires,  that  is,  fox-hunters,  or  men  qualified  to 
hunt  foxes.  The  one  may  decide  very  well  upon  a  case  of  pounds, 
shillings,  and  pence,  or  of  the  counting-house  :  and  the  other  ot 
the  jockey-club  or  the  chase.  But  who  would  not  laugh,  that  be- 
cause such  men  can  decide  such  cases,  they  can  also  be  jurors 
upon  theology.  Talk  with  some  London  merchants  about  scrip- 
ture, and  they  will  understand  you  mean  scrip,  and  tell  you  hovf 
much  it  is  worth  at  the  Stock  Exchange.  Ask  them  about  theolo 
gy,  and  they  will  say  they  know  of  no  such  gentleman   ipon 


tSS  LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE. 

Change.  Tell  some  country  squires  of  the  sun  and  nr.oon  stand- 
ing still,  the  one  on  the  top  of  a  hill  and  the  other  in  a  valley,  and 
they  will  swear  it  is  a  lie  of  one's  own  making.  Tell  them  thai 
God  Almighty  ordered  a  man  to  make  a  cake  and  bake  it  with  a 
t — d  and  eat  it,  and  they  will  say  it  is  one  of  Dean  Swift's  black- 
guard stories.  Tell  them  it  is  in  the  Bible,  and  they  will  lay  a 
bowl  of  punch  it  is  not,  and  leave  it  to  the  parson  of  the  parish  to 
decide.  Ask  them  also  about  theology,  and  they  will  say,  they 
know  of  no  such  an  one  on  the  turf.  An  appeal  to  such  juries 
serves  to  bring  the  Bible  into  more  ridicule  than  any  thing  the  au- 
thor of  the  ^ge  of  Reason  has  written  ;  and  the  manner  in  which 
the  trial  has  been  conducted  shows,  that  the  prosecutor  dares  not 
come  to  the  point,  nor  meet  the  defence  of  the  defendant.  But  all 
other  cases  apart,  on  what  ground  of  right,  otherwise  than  on  the 
riffht  assumed  by  an  inquisition,  do  such  prosecutions  stand  ]  Re- 
ligion is  a  private  affair  between  every  man  and  his  Maker,  and  no 
tribunal  or  third  party  has  a  right  to  interfere  between  them.  It  is 
not  properly  a  thing  of  this  world  ;  it  is  only  practised  in  this  world ; 
but  its  object  is  in  a  future  world  ;  and  it  is  no  otherwise  an  ob- 
ject of  just  laws,  than  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  equal  rights 
of  all,  however  various  their  beliefs  may  be.  If  one  man  choose  to 
believe  the  book  called  the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of  God,  and  another, 
from  the  convinced  idea  of  the  purity  and  perfection  of  God,  com- 
pared with  the  contradictions  the  book  contains — from  the  lascivi- 
ousness  of  some  of  its  stoiies,  like  that  of  Lot  getting  drunk  and  de- 
bauching his  two  daughters,  which  is  not  spoken  of  as  a  crime, 
and  for  which  the  most  absurd  apologies  are  made — from  the  im- 
morality of  some  of  its  precepts,  like  that  of  showing  no  mercy — 
and  from  the  total  want  of  evidence  on  the  case,  thinks  he  ought 
not  to  believe  it  to  be  the  word  of  God,  each  of  them  has  an  equal 
right ;  and  if  the  one  has  the  right  to  give  his  reasons  for  believing 
it  to  be  so,  the  other  has  an  equal  right  to  give  his  reasons  for  be- 
lieving the  contrary.  Any  thing  that  goes  beyond  this  rule  is  an 
inquisition.  Mr.  Erskine  talks  of  his  moral  education ;  Mr. 
Erskine  is  very  little  acquainted  with  theological  subjects,  if  he 
does  not  know  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  sincere  and  religious  be- 
lief that  the  Bible  is  not  the  word  of  God.  This  is  my  belief;  it 
is  the  belief  of  thousands  far  more  learnetl  than  Mr.  Erskine  ;  and 
it  is  a  belief  that  is  every  day  increasing.  It  is  not  infidelity,  as 
Mr.  Erskine  prophanely  and  abusively  calls  it ;  it  is  the  direct  ro 


LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE.  189 

▼erse  of  infidelity.  It  is  a  pure  religious  belief,  founded  on  the 
idea  of  the  perfection  of  the  Creator.  If  the  Bible  be  the  word  of 
God,  it  needs  not  the  wretched  aid  of  prosecutions  to  support  it ; 
and  you  might  with  as  much  propriety  make  a  law  to  protect  the 
sunshine,  as  to  protect  the  Bible,  if  the  Bible,  like  the  sun,  be  the 
work  of  God.  We  see  that  God  takes  good  care  of  the  Creation 
he  nas  made.  He  suffers  no  part  of  it  to  be  extinguished  :  and 
he  will  take  the  same  care  of  his  word,  if  he  ever  gave  one.  But 
men  ought  to  be  reverentially  careful  and  suspicious  how  they  as- 
cribe books  to  him  as  his  xvord,  which  from  this  confused  condi- 
tion would  dishonor  a  common  scribbler,  and  against  which  there 
,  is  abundant  evidence,  and  every  cause  to  suspect  imposition. 
Leave  then  the  Bible  to  itself  God  will  take  care  of  it  if  he  has 
any  thing  to  do  with  it,  as  he  takes  care  of  the  sun  and  the  moon, 
which  need  not  your  laws  for  their  better  protection.  As  the  two 
instances  I  have  produced,  in  the  beginning  of  this  letter,  from  the 
Dook  of  Genesis,  the  one  respecting  the  account  called  the  Mo- 
saic account  of  the  Creation,  the  other  of  the  Flood,  sufficiently 
show  the  necessity  of  examining  the  Bible,  in  order  to  ascertain 
what  degree  of  evidence  there  is  for  receiving  or  rejecting  it  as  a 
sacred  book  ;  I  shall  not  add  more  upon  that  subject ;  but  in  order 
to  show  Mr.  Erskine  that  there  are  religious  establishments  for 
public  worship  which  make  no  profession  of  faith  of  the  books 
called  holy  scriptures,  nor  admit  of  priests,  I  will  conclude  with  an 
account  of  a  society  lately  began  in  Paris,  and  which  is  very  rapid- 
ly extending  itself. 

The  society  takes  the  name  of  Theophilantropes,  which  would 
be  rendered  in  English  by  the  word  Theophilanthropists,  a  word 
compounded  of  three  Greek  words,  signifying  God,  Love,  and 
Man.  The  explanation  given  to  this  word  is,  Lovers  of  God  and 
Man,  or  Movers  of  God  and  Friends  of  Man,  adorateurs  de 
Dieu  et  amis  des  hommes.  The  society  proposes  to  publish  each 
year  a  volume,  the  first  volume  is  just  published,  entitled 

RELIGIOUS   YEAR   OF    THE  THEOPHILANTHROPISTS; 

OR, 
ADORERS  OF  GOD,  AND  FRIENDS  OF  MAN, 

Being  a  collection  of  the  discourses,  lectures,  hymns,  and  can- 
ticles, for  all  the  religious  and  moral  festivals  of  the  Theophilan- 
thropists during  the  coiu-sr  of  the  year,  whetherin  their  public  tem- 


190  LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE. 

pies  or  in  their  private  families,  published  by  the  author  of  the 
Manuel  of  the  Theophilanthropists. 

The  volume  of  this  year,  which  is  the  first,  contains  214  pages 
duodecimo. 

The  following  is  the  table  of  contents  : — 

1.  Precise  history  of  the  Theophilanthropists. 

2.  Exercises  common  to  all  the  festivals. 

3.  Hymn,  No.  I,  God  of  whom  the  universe  speaks. 

4.  Discourse  upon  the  existence  of  God. 

5.  Ode  II.     The  heavens  instruct  the  earth. 

6.  Precepts  of  wisdom,  extracted  from  the  book  of  the  Ado 

rateurs. 

7.  Canticle,  No.  III.     God  Creator,  soul  of  nature. 

8.  Extracts  from  divers  morahsts,  upon  the  nature  of  God,  and 

upon  the  physical  proofs  of  his  existence. 

9.  Canticle,  No.  lY.    Let  us  bless  at  our  waking  the  God  who 

gives  us  light. 

10.  Moral  thoughts  extracted  from  the  Bible. 

11.  Hymn,  No.  Y.    Father  of  the  universe.  . 

12.  Contemplation  of  nature  on  the  first  days  of  the  spring. 

13.  Ode,  No  YI.     Lord  in  thy  glory  adorable. 

14.  Extracts  from  the  moral  thoughts  of  Confucius. 

15.  Canticle  in  praise  of  actions,  and  thanks  for  the  works  of  the 

creation. 

16.  Continuation  from  the  moral  thoughts  of  Confucius. 

17.  Hymn,  No.  YII.    All  the  universe  is  full  of  thy  magnificence. 

18.  Extracts  from  an  ancient  sage  of  India  upon  the  duties  of 

families. 

19.  Upon  the  spring. 

20.  Moral  thoughts  of  divers  Chinese  authors. 

21.  Canticle,  No.  YIII.     Every  thing  celebrates  the  glory  of  the 

eternal. 

22.  Continuation  of  the  moral  thoughts  of  Chinese  authors. 

23.  Invocation  for  the  country. 

24.  Extracts  from  the  moral  thoughts  of  Theognis. 

25.  Invocation,  Creator  of  man. 

26.  Ode,  No.  IX.     Upon  Death. 

27.  Extracts  from  the  book  of  the  Moral  Universal,  upon  happi- 

ness. 
28    Ode,  No.  X.    Suprem  "  Author  of  Nature. 


LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE.  191 

INTRODUCTION. 

ENTITLED 

PRECISE  HISTORY  OF  THE  THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 

"  Towards  the  month  of  Yendimiaire,  of  the  year  5,  (Sept. 
1796,)  there  appeared  at  Paris,  a  small  work,  entitled,  Manuel  of 
the  Theoantropophiles,  since  called,  for  the  sake  of  easier  pro- 
nunciation.    Theophilantropes,  (Theophilanthropists,)  published 

byC . 

"  The  worship  set  forth  in  this  Manuel,  of  which  the  origin  is 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world,  was  then  professed  by  some  fami- 
lies in  the  silence  of  domestic  life.  But  no  sooner  was  the 
Manuel  published,  than  some  persons,  respectable  for  their  know 
ledge  and  their  manners,  saw,  in  the  formation  of  a  society  open 
to  the  public,  an  easy  method  of  spreading  moral  religion,  and  of 
leading  by  degrees  great  numbers  to  the  knowledge  thereof,  who 
appear  to  have  forgotten  it.  This  consideration  ought  of  itself 
not  to  leave  indifferent  those  persons  who  know  that  morality  and 
religion,  which  is  the  most  solid  support  thereof,  are  necessary  to 
the  maintenance  of  society,  as  well  as  to  the  happiness  of  the 
individual.  These  considerations  determined  the  families  of  the 
Theophilanthropists  to  unite  publicly  for  the  exercise  of  their 
worship. 

"  The  first  society  of  this  kind  opened  in  the  month  of  Nivose, 
year  5,  (Jan.  1797,)  in  the  street  Denftis,  No.  34,  corner  of  Lom- 
bard-street. The  care  of  conducting  this  society  was  under- 
taken by  five  fathers  of  families.  They  adopted  the  Manuel  of 
the  Theophilanthropists.  They  agreed  to  hold  their  days  of  pub- 
lic worship  on  the  days  corresponding  to  Sundays,  but  without 
making  this  a  hindrance  to  other  societies  to  choose  such  other 
day  as  they  thought  more  convenient.  Soon  after  this,  more  so- 
cieties were  opened,  of  which  some  celebrate  on  the  decadi,  (tenth 
day,)  and  others  on  the  Sunday  :  it  was  also  resolved  that  the  com- 
mittee should  meet  one  hour  each  week  for  the  purpose  of  pre- 
paring or  examining  the  discourses  and  lectures  proposed  for  the 
next  general  assembly.  That  the  general  assemblies  should  be 
called  Fetes  (festivals)  religious  and  moral.  That  those  festivals 
should  be  conducted  in  principle  and  form,  in  a  manner,  as  not  to 
oe  considered  as  the  festivals  of  an  exclusive  worship  ;  and  that 


192  LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE. 

in  recalling  those  who  might  not  be  attached  to  any  particular  wor- 
ship, those  festivals  might  also  be  attended  as  moral  exercises  by 
disciples  of  every  sect,  and  consequently  avoid,  by  scrupulous 
care,  every  thing  that  might  make  the  society  appear  under  the 
name  of  a  sect.  The  society  adopts  neither  rites  nor  priesthood, 
and  it  will  never  loose  sight  of  the  resolution  not  to  advance  any 
thing  as  a  society,  inconvenient  to  any  sect  or  sects,  in  any  time 
or  country,  and  under  any  government. 

"  It  will  be  seen,  that  it  is  so  much  the  more  easy  for  the  society 
to  keep  within  this  circle,  because,  that  the  dogmas  of  the  Theo- 
philanthropists  are  those  upon  which  all  the  sects  have  agreed, 
that  their  moral  is  that  upon  which  there  has  never  been  the  least 
dissent ;  and  that  the  name  they  have  taken,  expresses  the  double 
end  of  all  the  sects,  that  of  leading  to  the  adoration  of  God  and 
love  of  man. 

"  The  Theophilanthropists  do  not  call  themselves  the  disciples 
of  such  or  such  a  man.  They  avail  themselves  of  the  wise  pre- 
cepts that  have  been  transmitted  by  writers  of  all  countries  and 
in  all  ages.  The  reader  will  find  in  the  discourses,  lectures, 
hymns,  and  canticles,  which  the  Theophilanthropists  have  adopted 
for  their  religious  and  moral  festivals,  and  which  they  present 
under  the  title  of  Annee  Religieuse,  extracts  from  moralists, 
ancient  and  modern,  divested  of  maxims  too  severe,  or  too  loosely 
conceived,  or  contrary  to  piety,  whether  towards  God  or  towards 


Next  follow  the  dogmas  of  the  Theophilanthropists,  or  things 
they  profess  to  believe.  These  are  but  two,  and  are  thus  expres- 
sed, les  Theophilantrojyes  croient  a  Vexistence  de  Dieu,  et  a  IHm- 
morlalite  de  I'ame.  The  Theophilanthropists  believe  in  the  ex- 
istence of  God,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

The  Manuel  of  the  Theophilanthropists,  a  small  volume  of  sixty 
pages,  duodecimo,  is  published  separately,  as  is  also  their  ca- 
techism, which  is  of  the  same  size.  The  principles  of  the  Theo- 
philanthropists are  the  same  as  those  published  in  the  first  part 
of  the  Jge  of  Reason  in  1793,  and  in  the  second  part,  in  1795. 
The  Theophilanthropists,  as  a  society,  are  silent  upon  all  the 
thmgs  they  do  not  profess  to  believe,  as  the  sacredness  of  the 
books  called  the  Bible,  &c.  &c.  They  profess  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  but  they  are  silent  on  the  immortality  of  the  body,  or 


LETTER    TO    MR.    ERSKINE.  193 

that  which  the  church  calls  the  resurrection.  The  author  of  the 
Age  of  Reason  gives  reasons  for  every  thing  he  disbelieves,  as  well 
as  for  those  he  believes ;  and  where  this  cannot  be  done  with  sa.fety, 
the  government  is  a  despotism,  and  the  church  an  inquisition. 

It  is  more  than  three  years  since  the  first  part  of  the  Jlge  of 
Reason  was  published,  and  more  than  a  year  and  a  half  since  the 
publication  of  the  second  part :  the  bishop  of  LlandafF  undertook  to 
write  an  answer  to  the  second  part ;  and  it  was  not  until  after 
it  was  known  that  the  author  of  the  Age  of  Reason  would  reply 
to  the  bishop,  that  the  prosecution  against  the  book  was  set  on 
foot ;  and  which  is  said  to  be  carried  on  by  some  clergy  of  the 
English  church.  If  the  bishop  is  one  of  them,  and  the  object  be 
to  prevent  an  exposure  of  the  numerous  and  gross  errors  he  has 
committed  in  his  work,  (and  which  he  wrote  when  report  said  that 
Thomas  Paine  was  dead,)  it  is  a  confession  that  he  feels  the  weak- 
ness of  his  cause,  and  finds  himself  unable  to  maintain  it.  In 
this  case  he  has  given  me  a  triumph  I  did  not  seek,  and  Mr. 
Erskine,  the  herald  of  the  prosecution,  has  proclaimed  it. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


25 


DISCOURSE 

DELIVERED  TO  THE  SOCIETY  OF  THEOPHILAN- 
THROPISTS  AT  PARIS. 


Religion  has  two  principal  enemies,  Fanaticism  and  Infidelity 
or  that  which  is  called  atheism.  The  first  requires  to  he 
combated  by  reason  and  morality,  the  other  by  natural  philoso- 
phy. 

The  existence  of  a  God  is  the  first  dogma  of  the  Theophilan- 
thropists.  It  is  upon  this  subject  that  I  solicit  your  attention  ;  for 
though  it  has  been  often  treated  of,  and  that  most  sublimely,  the 
subject  is  inexhaustible  ;  and  there  will  always  remain  something 
to  be  said  that  has  not  been  before  advanced.  I  go,  therefore,  to 
open  the  subject,  and  to  crave  your  attention  to  the  end. 

The  universe  is  the  Bible  of  a  true  Theophilanthropist.  It  is 
there  that  he  reads  of  God.  It  is  there  that  the  proofs  of  his  ex- 
istence are  to  be  sought  and  to  be  found.  As  to  written  or  print- 
ed books,  by  whatever  name  they  are  called,  they  are  the  works  of 
man's  hands,  and  carry  no  evidence  in  themselves  that  God  is  the 
author  of  any  of  them.  It  must  be  in  something  that  man  could 
not  make,  that  we  must  seek  evidence  for  our  belief,  and  that 
something  is  the  universe  ;  the  true  Bible  ;  the  inimitable  work  of 
God. 

Contemplating' the  universe,  the  whole  system  of  creation,  m  ' 
this  point  of  light,  we  shall  discover,  that  all  that  which  is  called 
natural  philosophy  is  properly  a  divine  study.  It  is  the  study  of 
God  through  his  works.  It  is  the  best  study  by  which  we  can 
arrive  at  a  knowledge  of  his  existence,  and  the  only  one  by  which 
we  can  gain  a  glimpse  of  his  perfection. 

Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  power  1     l^e  see  it  in  the 


196  DISCOURSE    TO    THE    SOCIETY 

immensity  of  the  Creation.  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  wis- 
dom 1  We  see  it  in  the  unchangeable  order  by  which  the  incom- 
prehensible Whole  is  governed.  Do  we  want  to  contemplate 
his  munificence  ?  We  see  it  in  the  abundance  with  which  he  fills 
the  earth.  Dc  we  want  to  contemplate  his  mercy  ?  We  see  it 
in  his  not  withholding  that  abundance  even  from  the  unthankful. 
In  fine,  do  we  want  to  know  what  God  is  ?  Search  not  written 
or  printed  books,  but  the  scripture  called  the  Creation. 

It  has  been  the  error  of  the  schools  to  teach  astronomy,  and  nil 
the  other  sciences,  and  subjects  of  natural  philosophy,  as  accom- 
plishments only  ;  whereas  they  should  be  taught  theologically,  or 
with  reference  to  the  Being  who  is  the  author  of  them  :  for  all  the 
principles  of  science  are  of  divine  origin.  Man  cannot  make,  or 
invent,  or  contrive  principles.  He  can  only  discover  them  ;  and 
he  ought  to  look  through  the  discovery  to  the  author. 

When  we  examine  an  extraordinary  piece  of  machinery,  an 
astonishing  pile  of  architecture,  a  well  executed  statue,  or  an 
highly  finished  painting,  where  life  and  action  are  imitated,  and 
habit  only  prevents  our  mistaking  a  surface  of  light  and  shade  for 
cubical  solidity,  our  ideas  are  naturally  led  to  think  of  the  exten- 
sive genius  and  talents  of  the  artist.  When  we  study  the  elements 
of  geometry,  we  think  of  Euclid.  When  we  speak  of  gravitation, 
we  think  of  Newton.  How  then  is  it,  that  when  we  study  the 
works  of  God  in  the  Creation,  we  stop  short,  and  do  not  think  of 
God  1  It  is  from  the  error  of  the  schools  in  having  taught  those 
subjects  as  accomplishments  only,  and  thereby  separated  the  study 
of  them  from  the  being  who  is  the  author  of  them.. 

The  schools  have  made  the  study  of  theology  to  consist  in  the 
study  of  opinions  in  written  or  printed  books  ;  whereas  theology 
should  be  studied  in  the  works  or  books  of  the  Creation.  The 
study  of  theology  in  books  of  opinions  has  often  produced  fana- 
ticism, rancour,  and  cruelty  of  temper  ;  and  from  hence  have  pro- 
ceeded the  numerous  persecutions,  the  fanatical  quarrels,  the  re- 
ligious burnings  and  massacres,  that  have  desolated  Europe.  But 
the  study  of  theology  in  the  works  of  the  Creation  produces  a  di- 
rect contrary  effect.  The  mind  becomes  at  once  enlightened  and 
serene  ;  a  copy  of  the  scene  it  beholds  :  information  and  adora 
tion  go  hand  in  hand ;  and  all  the  social  faculties  become  en 
larged. 


OF    THEOPHILANTHROPISTS.  197 

The  evil  that  has  resulted  from  the  error  of  the  schools,  in  teach- 
mw  natural  philosophy  as  an  accomplishment  only,  has  been  that  of 
o-enerating  in  the  pupils  a  species  of  atheism.  Instead  of  looking 
through  the  works  of  the  Creation  to  the  Creator  himself,  they 
stop  short,  and  employ  the  knowledge  they  acquire  to  create 
doubts  of  his  existence.  They  labour  with  studied  ingenuity  to 
ascribe  every  thing  they  behold  to  innate  properties  of  matter  ; 
and  jump  over  all  the  rest,  by  saying,  that  matter  is  eternal. 

Let  us  examine  this  subject ;  it  is  worth  examining  ;  for  if  we 
examine  it  through  all  its  cases,  the  result  will  be,  that  the  exist- 
ence of  a  superior  cause,  or  that  which  man  calls  God,  will  be 
discoverable  by  philosophical  principles. 

In  the  first  place,  admitting  matter  to  have  properties,  as  we  see 
it  has,  the  question  still  remains,  how  came  matter  by  those  pro- 
perties ?  To  this  they  will  answer,  that  matter  possessed  those 
properties  eternally.  This  is  not  solution,  but  assertion  :  and  to 
deny  it  is  equally  impossible  of  proof  as  to  assert  it.  It  is  then 
necessary  to  go  further  ;  and,  therefore,  I  say,  if  there  exist  a  cir- 
cumstance that  is  not  a  property  of  matter,  and  without  which  the 
universe,  or,  to  speak  in  a  limited  degree,  the  solar  system,  com 
posed  of  planets  and  a  sun,  could  not  exist  a  moment ;  all  the 
arguments  of  atheism,  drawn  from  properties  of  matter,  and 
applied  to  account  for  the  universe,  will  be  overthrown,  and  the 
existence  of  a  superior  cause,  or  that  which  man  calls  God,  be- 
comes discoverable,  as  is  before  said,  by  natural  philosophy. 

I  go  now  to  show  that  such  a  circumstance  exists,  and  what 
it  is  : 

The  universe  is  composed  of  matter,  and,  as  a  system,  is  sus- 
tained by  motion.  Motion  is  not  a  propertij  of  matter,  and  with- 
out this  motion,  the  solar  system  could  not  exist.  Were  motion 
a  property  of  matter,  that  undiscovered  and  undiscoverable  thing 
called  perpetual  motion  would  establish  itself.  It  is  because 
motion  is  not  a  property  of  matter  that  perpetual  motion  is  an 
impossibility  in  the  hand  of  every  being  but  that  of  the  Creator  of 
motion.  "When  the  pretenders  to  atheism  can  produce  perpetual 
motion,  and  not  till  then,  they  may  expect  to  be  credited. 

The  natural  state  of  matter,  as  to  place,  is  a  state  of  rest.  Mo- 
tion, or  change  of  place,  is  the  effect  of  an  external  cause  acting 
upon  matter.  As  to  that  faculty  of  matter  that  is  called  gravita- 
tion, it  is  the  influence  which  two  or  more  bodies  have  reciprocally 


198  DISCOURSE    TO    THE    SOCIETY 

on  each  other  to  unite  and  to  be  at  rest.  Every  thing  which  h&3 
hitherto  been  discovered,  with  respect  to  the  motion  of  the  planets 
in  the  system,  relates  only  to  the  laws  by  which  motion  acts,  and 
not  to  the  cause  of  motion.  Gravitation,  so  far  from  being  the 
cause  of  motion  to  the  planets  that  compose  the  solar  system, 
would  be  the  destruction  of  the  solar  system,  were  revolutionary 
motion  to  cease  ;  for  as  the  action  of  spinning  upholds  a  top,  the 
revolutionary  motion  upholds  the  planets  in  their  orbits,  and  pre- 
vents them  from  gravitating  and  forming  one  mass  with  the  sun. 
In  one  sense  of  the  word,  philosophy  knows,  and  atheism  says, 
that  matter  is  in  perpetual  motion.  But  motion  here  refers  to  the 
state  of  matter,  and  that  only  on  the  surface  of  the  earth.  It  is 
either  decomposition,  which  is  continually  destroying  the  form  of 
bodies  of  matter,  or  re-composition,  which  renews  that  matter  in 
the  same  or  another  form,  as  the  decomposition  of  animal  or  vege- 
table substances  enter  into  the  composition  of  other  bodies.  But 
the  motion  that  upholds  the  solar  system  is  of  an  entire  different 
kind,  and  is  not  a  property  of  matter.  It  operates  also  to  an  entire 
different  effect.  It  operates  to  perpetual  preservation,  and  to 
prevent  any  change  in  the  state  of  the  system. 

Giving  then  to  matter  all  the  properties  which  philosophy  knows 
it  has,  or  all  that  atheism  ascribes  to  it,  and  can  prove,  and  even 
supposing  matter  to  be  eternal,  it  will  not  account  for  the  system 
of  the  universe,  or  of  the  solar  system,  because  it  will  not  account 
for  motion,  and  it  is  motion  that  preserves  it.  "When,  therefore, 
we  discover  a  circumstance  of  such  immense  importance,  that 
without  it  the  universe  could  not  exist,  and  for  which  neither  mat- 
ter, nor  any,  nor  all  the  properties  of  matter  can  account ;  we  are 
by  necessity  forced  into  the  rational  and  comfortable  behef  of  the 
existence  of  a  cause  superior  to  matter,  and  that  cause  man  calls 
God.      VNoi  neee.y:*.'.}^  •    ^i"'"^-  -^-vguw^^^vti  9c(L<t5   \^  \iaid  c-f  wv^Af.-. 

As  to  that  which  is  oallea  nature,  it  is  no  other  than  the  laws  by 
which  motion  and  action  of  every  kind,  with  respect  to  unintel- 
ligible matter  is  regulated.  And  when  we  speak  of  looking 
through  nature  up  to  nature's  God,  we  speak  philosophically  the 
same  rational  language  as  when  we  speak  of  looking  through 
human  laws  up  to  the  power  that  ordained  them. 

God  is  the  power  or  first  cause,  nature  is  the  law,  and  matter  is 
the  subject  acted  upon. 


OF    THEOPHILANTHROPISTS.  199 

But  infidelity,  by  ascribing  every  phenomenon  to  properties  of 
matter,  conceives  a  system  for  which  it  cannot  account,  and  yet 
it  pretends  to  demonstration.  It  reasons  from  what  it  sees  on  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  but  it  does  not  carry  itself  to  the  solar  sys- 
tem existing  by  motion.  It  sees  upon  the  surface  a  perpetual 
decomposition  and  re-composition  of  matter.  It  sees  that  an  oak 
produces  an  acorn,  an  acorn  an  oak,  a  bird  an  egg,  an  egg  a  bird, 
and  so  on.  In  things  of  this  kind  it  sees  something  which  it  calls 
natural  cause,  but  none  of  the  causes  it  sees  is  the  cause  of 
that  motion  which  preserves  the  solar  system. 

Let  us  contemplate  this  wonderful  and  stupendous  system  con- 
sisting of  matter  and  existing  by  motion.  It  is  not  matter  in  a 
state  of  rest,  nor  in  a  state  of  decomposition  or  re-composition. 
It  is  matter  systematized  in  perpetual  orbicular  or  circular  motion. 
As  a  system  that  motion  is  the  life  of  it,  as  animation  is  life  to  an 
animal  body  ;  deprive  the  system  of  motion,  and,  as  a  system,  it 
must  expire.  Who  then  breathed  into  the  system  the  life  of  mo- 
tion ?  What  power  impelled  the  planets  to  move,  since  motion 
is  not  a  property  of  the  matter  of  which  they  are  composed  ?  If 
we  contemplate  the  immense  velocity  of  this  motion,  our  wonder 
becomes  increased,  and  our  adoration  enlarges  itself  in  the  same 
proportion.  To  instance  only  one  of  the  planets,  that  of  the  earth 
we  inhabit,  its  distance  from  the  sun,  the  centre  of  the  orbits  of  all 
the  planets,  is,  according  to  observations  of  the  transit  of  the 
planet  Venus,  about  one  hundred  million  miles  ;  consequently,  the 
diameter  of  the  orbit,  or  circle  in  which  the  earth  moves  round  the 
sun,  is  double  that  distance  ;  and  the  measure  of  the  circumfe- 
rence of  the  orbit,  taken  as  three  times  its  diameter,  is  six  hundred 
million  miles.  The  earth  performs  this  voyage  in  365  days  and 
some  hours,  and  consequently  moves  at  the  rate  of  more  than  one 
million  six  hundred  thousand  miles  every  twenty-four  hours. 

Where  will  infidelity,  where  will  atheism  find  cause  for  this 
astonishing  velocity  of  motion,  never  ceasing,  never  varying,  and 
wiiich  is  the  preservation  of  the  earth  in  its  orbit  1  It  is  not  by- 
reasoning  from  an  acorn  to  an  oak,  or  from  any  change  in  the  state 
of  matter  on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  that  this  can  be  accounted 
for.  Its  cause  is  not  to  be  found  in  matter,  nor  in  any  thire  we 
call  nature.  The  atheist  who  affects  to  reason,  and  the  fanatic 
who  rejects  reason,  plunge  themselves  alike  into  inextricable  diffi- 
culties.    The  one  perverts  the  sublime  and  enlightening  study  of 


200  DISCOURSE    TO    THE    SOCIETY 

natural  philosophy  into  a  deformity  of  absurdities  by  not  reasoning 
to  the  end.  The  other  loses  himself  in  the  obscurity  of  metaphy- 
sical theories,  and  dishonours  the  Creator,  by  treating  the  study  of 
his  works  with  contempt.  The  one  is  a  half-rational  of  whom 
there  is  some  hope,  the  other  a  visionary  to  whom  we  must  be 
charitable. 

When  at  first  thought  we  think  of  a  Creator,  our  ideas  appear 
to  us  undefined  and  confused  ;  but  if  we  reason  philosophically, 
those  ideas  can  be  easily  arranged  and  simplified.  It  is  a  Being 
xuJiose  poiuer  is  equal  to  his  will.  Observe  the  nature  of  the  will  of 
man.  It  is  of  an  infinite  quality.  We  cannot  conceive  the  possi- 
bility of  limits  to  the  will.  Observe  on  the  other  hand,  how  ex- 
ceedingly limited  is  his  power  of  acting,  compared  with  the  nature 
of  his  will.  Suppose  the  power  equal  to  the  will,  and  man  would 
be  a  God.  He  would  will  himself  eternal,  and  be  so.  He  could 
will  a  creation,  and  could  make  it.  In  this  progressive  reasoning, 
we  see  in  the  nature  of  the  will  of  man,  half  of  that  which  we  con- 
ceive of  thinking  of  God;  add  the  other  half,  and  we  have  the 
whole  idea  of  a  being  who  could  make  the  universe,  and  sustain  it 
by  perpetual  motion  ;  because  he  could  create  that  motion. 

We  know  nothing  of  the  capacity  of  the  will  of  animals,  but  we 
tinow  a  great  deal  of  the  difference  of  their  powers.  For  example, 
how  numerous  are  the  degrees,  and  how  immense  is  the  difference 
of  power  from  a  mite  to  a  man.  Since  then  every  thing  we  see 
below  us  shows  a  progression  of  power,  where  is  the  difficulty  in 
supposing  that  there  is,  at  the  summit  of  all  things,  a  Being  in 
whom  an  infinity  of  power  unites  with  the  infinity  of  the  will. 
When  this  simple  idea  presents  itself  to  our  mind,  we  have  the 
idea  of  a  perfect  Being  that  man  calls  God. 

It  is  comfortable  to  live  under  the  belief  of  the  existence  of  an 
infinitely  protecting  power ;  and  it  is  an  addition  to  that  comfort  to 
know  that  such  a  belief  is  not  a  mere  conceit  of  the  imagination, 
as  many  of  the  theories  that  are  called  religious  are  ;  nor  a  belief 
founded  only  on  tradition  or  received  opinion,  but  is  a  belief  dedu- 
cible  by  the  action  of  reason  upon  the  thin",s  ttiat  compose  the 
system  of  the  universe  :  a  belief  arising ^o'lit"  or  visible  facts  :  and 
so  demonstrable  is  the  truth  of  this  belief,  that  if  no  such  belief 
had  existed,  the  persons  who  now  controvert  it,  would  have  been 
the  persons  who  would  have  produced  and  propagated  it,  because, 
by  beginning  t")  reason,  they  would  have  been  led  on  to  reason 


Ol'    THEOrillL^NTHROPISTS.  201 

progressively  to  the  end,  and,  thereby,  have  discovered  that  matter 
and  all  the  properties  it  has,  will  not  account  for  the  system  of  the 
universe,  and  that  there  must  necessarily  be  a  superior  cause. 

It  was  the  excess  to  which  imaginary  systems  of  religion  had 
been  carried,  and  the  intolerance,  persecutions,  burnings,  and 
massacres,  they  occasioned,  that  first  induced  certain  persons  to 
propagate  infidelity ;  thinking,  that  upon  the  whole  it  was  better 
not  to  believe  at  all,  than  to  believe  a  multitude  of  things  and  com- 
plicated creeds,  that  occasioned  so  much  mischief  in  the  world. 
But  those  days  are  past :  persecution  has  ceased,  and  the  antidote 
then  set  up  against  it  has  no  longer  even  the  shadow  of  an  apology. 
We  profess,  and  we  proclaim  in  peace,  the  pure,  unmixed,  com- 
fortable, and  rational  belief  of  a  God,  as  manifested  to  us  in  the 
universe.  We  do  this  without  any  apprehension  of  that  belief  be- 
ing made  a  cause  of  persecution  as  other  beliefs  have  been,  or  of 
suffering  persecution  ourselves.  To  God,  and  not  to  man,  are  all 
men  to  account  for  their  belief. 

It  has  been  well  observed  at  the  first  institution  of  this  society 
that  the  doijroas  it  professes  to  believe,  are  from  the  commence- 
ment of  the  world  ;  that  they  are  not  novelties,  but  are  confessedly 
the  basis  of  all  systems  of  rehgion,  however  numerous  and  con- 
tradictory they  may  be.  All  men  in  the  outset  of  the  religion  they 
profess  are  Theophilanthrojiists.  It  is  impossible  to  form  any 
system  of  religion  without  building  upon  those  principles,  and 
therefore,  they  are  not  sectarian  principles,  unless  we  suppose  a 
sect  composed  of  all  the  world. 

I  have  said  in  the  course  of  this  discourse,  that  the  study  of  na- 
tural philosophy  is  a  divine  study,  because  it  is  the  study  of  the 
works  of  God  in  the  Creation.  If  we  consider  theology  upon  this 
ground,  what  an  extensive  field  of  improvement  in  things  both 
divine  and  human  opens  itself  before  us.  All  the  principles  of 
science  are  of  divine  origin.  It  w-as  not  man  that  invented  the 
principles  on  which  astronomy,  and  every  branch  of  mathematics 
are  founded  and  studied.  It  was  not  man  that  gave  properties  of 
the  circle  and  triangle.  Those  principles  are  eternal  and  immu- 
table. We  see  in  them  the  unchangeable  nature  of  the  Divinity. 
We  see  in  them  immortality,  an  immortality  existing  after  the  ma- 
terial figures  that  express  those  properties  are  dissolved  in  dust. 

The  society  is  at  present  in  its  infancy,  and  its  means  are  small; 
but  I  wish  to  hold  in  view  the  subject  I  allude  to,  and  instead  of 
26 


202  DISCOURSE    TO    THE    SOCIETY,  &C. 

teaching  the  philosophical  branches  of  learning  as  ornamental  ac- 
complishments only,  as  they  have  hitherto  been  taught,  to  teach 
them  in  a  manner  that  shall  combine  theological  knowledge  with 
scientific  instruction  ;  to  do  this  to  the  best  advantage,  some  in- 
struments will  be  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  explanation,  of 
which  the  society  is  not  yet  possessed.  But  as  the  views  of  the  so- 
ciety extend  to  public  good,  as  well  as  to  that  of  the  individual,  and 
as  its  principles  can  have  no  enemies,  means  may  be  devised  to 
procure  them. 

If  we  unite  to  the  present  instruction,  a  series  of  lectures  on  the 
ground  I  have  mentioned,  we  shall,  in  the  first  place,  render  theo- 
logy the  most  delightful  and  entertaining  of  all  studies.  In  the 
next  place  we  shall  give  scientific  instruction  to  those  who  could 
not  otherwise  obtain  it.  The  mechanic  of  every  profession  will 
there  be  taught  the  mathematical  principles  necessary  to  render 
him  a  proficient  in  his  art.  The  cultivator  will  there  see  develop- 
ed, the  principles  of  vegetation :  while,  at  the  same  time,  they 
will  be  led  to  see  the  hand  of  God  in  all  these  things. 


LETTER   TO   CAMILLE  JORDAN, 

ONE  OF  THE  rOUNCIL  OF  FIVE  HUNDRED, 

OCCASIONED  BY  HIS  REPORT  ON  THE  PRIESTS 
PUBLIC  WORSHIP,  AND  THE  BELLS. 


Citizen  Representative, 

As  every  thing  in  your  report,  relating  to  what  you  call  worship, 
connects  itself  with  the  books  called  the  Scriptures,  I  begin  with 
a  quotation  therefrom.  It  may  serve  to  give  us  some  idea  of  the 
fanciful  origin  and  fabrication  of  those  books.  2  Chronicles,  chap. 
xxxiv.  ver.  14,  &c.  "  Ililkiah,  the  priest,  found  the  book  of  the 
law  of  the  Lord  given  by  Moses.  And  Hilkiah,  the  priest,  said 
to  Shaphan,  the  scribe,  I  have  found  the  book  of  the  law  in  the 
house  of  the  Lord,  and  Hilkiah  delivered  the  book  to  Shaphan. 
And  Shaphan,  the  scribe,  told  the  king,  (Josiah,)  saying,  Hilkiah, 
the  priest,  hath  given  me  a  book." 

This  pretended  finding  was  about  a  thousand  years  after  the 
time  that  Moses  is  said  to  have  lived.  Before  this  pretended 
finding,  there  was  no  such  thing  practised  or  known  in  the  world 
as  that  which  is  called  the  law  of  Moses.  This  being  the  case, 
there  is  every  apparent  evidence,  that  the  books  called  the  books  of 
Moses  (and  which  make  the  first  part  of  what  are  called  the  Scrip- 
tures) are  forgeries  contrived  between  a  priest  and  a  limb  of  the 
law,*  Hilkiah,  and  Shaphan,  the  scribe,  a  thousand  years  after 
Moses  is  said  to  have  been  dead. 

Thus  much  for  the  first  part  of  the  Bible.  Every  other  part 
is  marked  with  circumstances  equally  as  suspicious.     We  ought, 

*  It  happens  that  Camille  Jordan  is  a  limb  of  the  law. 


204  LETTER  TO  CAMILLE  JORDAN. 

therefore,  to  be  reverentially  careful  how  we  ascribe  books  as  his 
word,  of  which  there  is  no  evidence,  and  against  which  there  is 
abundant  evidence  to  the  contrary,  and  every  cause  to  suspect 
imposition. 

In  your  report  you  speak  continually  of  something  by  the  name 
of  worship,  and  you  confine  yourself  to  speak  of  one  kind  only, 
as  if  there  were  but  one,  and  that  one  was  unquestionably  true. 

The  modes  of  worship  are  as  various  as  the  sects  are  numer- 
ous ;  and  amidst  all  this  variety  and  multiplicity  there  is  but  one 
article  of  belief  in  which  every  religion  in  the  world  agrees.  That 
article  has  universal  sanction.  It  is  the  belief  of  a  God,  or  vAjl 
the  Greeks  described  by  the  word  Theism,  and  the  Latins  by  that 
of  Deism.  Upon  this  one  article  have  been  erected  all  the  differ- 
ent super-structures  of  creeds  and  ceremonies  continually  warring 
with  each  other  that  now  exists  or  ever  existed.  But  the  men 
most  and  best  informed  upon  the  subject  of  theology,  rest  them- 
selves upon  this  universal  article,  and  hold  all  the  various  super- 
structures erected  thereon  to  be  at  least  doubtful,  if  not  altogether 
artificial. 

The  intellectual  part  of  religion  is  a  private  affair  between  every 
man  and  his  Maker,  and  in  which  no  third  party  has  any  right  to 
interfere.  The  practical  part  consists  in  our  doing  good  to  each 
other.  But  since  religion  has  been  made  into  a  trade,  the  practi- 
cal part  has  been  made  to  consist  of  ceremonies  performed  by 
men  called  priests  ;  and  the  people  have  been  amused  with  cere- 
monial shows,  processions,  and  bells.*  By  devices  of  this  kind 
true  religion  has  been  banished  ;  and  such  means  have  been  found 
out  to  extract  money  even  from  the  pockets  of  the  poor,  instead 
of  contributinjr  to  their  relief. 


*  The  precise  date  of  the  invention  of  bells  cannot  be  traced.  The  ancients, 
it  appears  from  Martial,  Juvenal,  Suetonius  and  others,  had  an  article  named 
tintinuabula,  (usually  translated  bell,)  by  which  the  Romans  were  summoned 
to  their  baths  and  public  places.  It  seems  most  probable,  that  the  description 
of  bells  now  used  in  churches,  were  invented  about  the  year  400,  and  generally 
adopted  before  the  commencement  of  the  seventh  century.  Previous  to  their 
invention,  however,  sounding  brass,  and  sometimes  basins,  were  used  ;  and  to 
the  present  day  the  Greek  church  have  boards,  or  iron  plates,  full  of  holes, 
which  they  strike  with  a  hammer,  or  mallet,  to  summen  the  priests  and  others 
to  divine  service.  %¥<>  may  also  remark,  that  in  our  own  country,  it  was  the 
custom  in  monasteries  to  visit  every  person's  cell  early  in  the  morning,  and 
knock  on  the  door  with  a  similar  instrument,  called  the  wakening  mallet — 
doubtless  no  very  pleasing  intrusion  on  the  slumbers  of  the  Monks. 

But,  the  use  of  bells  having  been  established,  it  was  found  that  devils  were 
terrified  at  the  sound,  and  slunk  in  haste  away  ;  in  consequence  of  which  it 
was  thougl it  necessary  to  bai'tize  them  in  a  solemn  manner,  which  appears  to 


LETTER  TO  CAMILLE  JORDAN.  205 

No  man  ought  to  make  a  living  by  religion.  It  is  dishonest 
so  to  do.  Religion  is  not  an  act  that  can  be  perfoimed  by  proxy. 
One  person  cannot  act  religion  for  another.  Every  person  must 
perform  it  for  himself:  and  all  that  a  priest  can  do  is  to  take  from 
him,  he  wants  nothing  but  his  money,  and  then  to  riot  in  the  spoil 
and  laugh  at  his  credulity. 

The  only  people,  as  a  professional  sect  of  Christians,  who  pro- 
vide for  the  poor  of  their  society,  are  people  known  by  the  name 
of  Quakers.  Those  men  have  no  priests.  They  assemble  quietly 
in  their  places  of  meeting,  and  do  not  disturb  their  neighbours  with 
shows  and  noise  of  bells.  Religion  does  not  unite  itself  to  show 
and  noise.  True  religion  is  without  either.  "Where  there  is 
both  there  is  no  true  religion. 

The  first  object  for  inquiry  in  all  cases,  more  especially  in  mat- 
ters of  religious  concern,  is  TRUTH.  We  ought  to  inquire  into 
the  truth  of  whatever  we  are  taught  to  believe,  and  it  is  certain 
that  the  books  called  the  Scriptures  stand,  in  this  respect,  in 
more  than  a  doubtful  predicament.  They  have  been  held  in  exis- 
tence, and  in  a  sort  of  credit  among  the  common  class  of  people, 
by  art,  terror,  and  persecution.  They  have  little  or  no  credh 
among  the  enlightened  part,  but  they  have  been  made  the  means 

have  been  first  done  by  Pope  John  XII.  A.  D.  068.  A  record  of  this  practice 
still  exists  in  the  Tom  of  Lincohi,  and  the  great  Tom  at  Oxford,  &c. 

Having  thus  laid  the  foundation  of  superstitious  veneration,  in  the  hearts  of 
the  common  people,  it  cannot  be  a  matter  of  surprise,  that  they  were  soon  used 
at  rejoicings,  and  high  festivals  in  the  church  (for  the  purpose  of  driving  away 
any  evil  spirit  which  might  be  in  the  neighborhood)  as  well  as  on  tlie  arrival 
of  any  great  personage,  on  which  occasion  the  usual  fee  was  one  penny. 

One  other  custom  remains  to  be  explained,  viz.  tolling  bell  on  the  occasion  of 
any  person's  death,  a  custom  which,  in  the  manner  now  practised,  is  totally 
different  from  its  original  institution.  It  appears  to  liave  been  used  as  early 
as  the  7th  century,  when  bells  were  first  generally  used  and  to  have  been  de- 
nominated the  soul  bell,  (as  it  signified  the  departing  of  the  soul,)  as  also,  the 
passing  bell.  Thus  Wheatly  teUs  us,  "  Our  church,  in  imitation  of  the  Saints 
of  former  ages,  calls  in  the  Minister  and  others  who  are  at  hand,  to  assist  their 
brother  in  his  last  extremity  ;  in  order  to  this,  she  directs  a  bell  should  be  toll- 
ed when  any  one  is  passing  out  of  this  life."  Durand  also  says — "When  any 
one  is  dying,  bells  must  be  tolled,  that  the  people  may  put  up  their  prayers  for 
him  ;  let  this  be  done  twice  for  a  woman,  and  thrice  for  a  man.  If  for  a  cler- 
gyman, as  many  times  as  he  had  orders  ;  and,  at  the  conclusion,  a  peal  on  all 
the  bells,  to  distinguish  the  quality  of  the  person  for  whom  the  people  are  to 
put  up  their  prayers." — From  these  passages,  it  appears  evident  that  the  bell 
was  to  be  tolled  before  a  person's  decease  rather  than  after,  as  at  the  present 
day ;  and  that  the  object  was  to  obtain  the  prayers  of  all  who  heard  it,  for  the 
repose  of  the  soul  of  their  departing  neighbour.  At  first,  when  the  tolling  took 
place  after  the  person's  decease,  it  was  deemed  superstitious,  and  was  partially 
disused,  which  was  found  materially  to  affect  tlie  revenue  of  the  church. 
The  priesthood  having  removed  the  objection,  bells  were  again  tolled,  upon 
payment  of  the  customary  fees.  English  Paper. 


206  LETTER    TO    CAMILLE    J0RDA5T. 

of  encumbering  the  world  with  a  numerous  priesthood,  who  have 
fattened  on  the  labour  of  the  people,  and  consumed  the  sustenance 
that  ought  to  be  applied  to  the  widows  and  the  poor. 

It  is  a  want  of  feeling  to  talk  of  priests  and  bells  whilst  so  many 
infants  are  perishing  in  the  hospitals,  and  aged  and  infirm  poor  in 
the  streets,  from  the  want  of  necessaries.  The  abundance  that 
France  produces  is  sufficient  for  every  want,  if  rightly  applied  ; 
but  priests  and  bells,  like  articles  of  luxury,  ought  to  be  the  least 
articles  of  consideration. 

We  talk  of  religion.  Let  us  talk  of  truth  ;  for  that  which  is  not 
truth,  is  not  worthy  the  name  of  religion. 

We  see  different  parts  of  the  world  overspread  with  different 
books,  each  of  which,  though  contradictory  to  the  other,  is  said  by 
its  partisans,  to  be  of  divine  origin,  and  is  made  a  rule  of  faith  and 
practice.  In  countries  under  despotic  governments,  where  in- 
quiry is  always  forbidden,  the  people  are  condemned  to  believe 
as  they  have  been  taught  by  their  priests.  This  was  for  many 
centuries  the  case  in  France  :  but  this  link  in  the  chain  of  slavery, 
is  happily  broken  by  the  revolution  ;  and,  that  it  may  never  be 
rivetted  again,  let  us  employ  a  part  of  the  liberty  we  enjoy  in  scru- 
tinizing into  the  truth.  Let  us  leave  behind  us  some  monument, 
that  we  have  made  the  cause  and  honour  of  our  Creator  an  object 
of  our  care.  If  we  have  been  imposed  upon  by  the  terrors  of 
government  and  the  artifice  of  priests  in  matters  of  religion,  let  us 
do  justice  to  our  Creator  by  examining  into  the  case.  His  name 
is  too  sacred  to  be  affixed  to  any  thing  which  is  fabulous  ;  and  it  is 
our  duty  to  inquire  whether  we  believe,  or  encourage  the  people 
to  believe,  in  fables  or  in  facts. 

It  would  be  a  project  worthy  the  situation  we  are  in,  to  invite 
in  inquiry  of  this  kind.  We  have  committees  for  various  objects  ; 
and,  among  others,  a  committee  for  bells.  We  have  institutions, 
academies,  and  societies  for  various  purposes  ;  but  we  have  none 
for  inquiring  into  historical  truth  in  matters  of  religious  concern. 

They  show  us  certain  books  which  they  call  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, the  word  of  God,  and  other  names  of  that  kind  ;  but  we 
ought  to  know  what  evidence  there  is  for  our  believing  them  to  be 
so,  and  at  what  time  they  originated  and  in  what  manner.  We 
know  that  men  could  make  booJ^s,  and  we  know  that  artifice  and 
superstition  could  give  them  a  name  ;  could  call  them  sacred. 
But  we  ought  to  be  careful  that  the  name  of  our  Creator  be  not 


LETTER    TO    CAMILLE    JORDAN.  207 

abused.  Let  then  all  the  evidence  with  respect  to  those  books  be 
made  a  subject  of  inquiry.  If  there  be  evidence  to  warrant  our 
belief  of  them,  let  us  encourage  the  propagation  of  it :  but  if 
not,  let  us  be  careful  not  to  promote  the  cause  of  delusion 
and  falsehood. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  Quakers — that  they  have  no  priests, 
no  bells — and  that  they  are  remarkable  for  their  care  of  the  poor 
of  their  society.  They  are  equally  as  remarkable  for  the  educa- 
tion of  their  children.  I  am  a  descendant  of  a  family  of  that  pro- 
fession ;  my  father  was  a  Quaker  ;  and  I  presume  I  may  De 
admitted  an  evidence  of  what  I  assert.  The  seeds  of  good  pnn- 
ciples,  and  the  literary  means  of  advancement  in  the  world,  are 
laid  in  early  life.  Instead,  therefore,  of  consuming  the  substance 
of  the  nation  upon  priests,  whose  life  at  best  is  a  life  of  idleness, 
let  us  think  of  providing  for  the  education  of  those  who  have  noi 
the  means  of  doing  it  themselves.  One  good  schoolmaster  Is  oi 
more  use  than  a  hundred  priests. 

If  we  look  back  at  what  was  the  condition  of  France  under  the 
ancient  regime,  we  cannot  acquit  the  priests  of  corrupting  the  mo- 
rals of  the  nation.  Their  pretended  celibacy  led  them  to  carry  de- 
bauchery and  domestic  infidelity  into  every  family  where  they 
could  gain  admission  ;  and  their  blasphemous  pretensions  to  for- 
give sins,  encouraged  the  commission  of  them.  Why  has  rne 
Revolution  of  France  been  stained  with  crimes  which  the  Revo- 
lution of  the  United  States  of  America  was  not  1  Men  are  phvsi- 
cally  the  same  in  all  countries  ;  it  is  education  that  makes  them 
different.  Accustom  a  people  to  believe  that  priests,  or  any  other 
class  of  men  can  forgive  sins,  and  you  will  have  sins  in  abundance. 

I  come  now  to  speak  more  particularly  to  the  object  of  your 
report. 

You  claim  a  privilege  incompatible  with  the  constitution  and 
with  rights.  The  constitution  protects  equally,  as  it  ought  to  do 
every  profession  of  religion  ;  it  gives  no  exclusive  privilege  to 
any.  The  churches  are  the  common  property  of  all  the  people  ; 
they  are  national  goods,  and  cannot  be  given  exclusively  to  anv 
one  profession,  because  the  right  does  not  exist  of  giving  to  any 
one  that  which  appertains  to  all.  It  would  be  consistent  with 
right  that  the  churches  be  sold,  and  the  money  arising  therelrom 
be  invested  as  a  fund  for  the  education  of  children  of  poor  parents 
of  every  profesfion,  and,  if  more  than  sufficient  for  this  purpose, 


208  LETTER  TO  CAMLLIE  JORDAN. 

that  the  surplus  be  appropriated  to  the  support  of  the  aged  poor. 
After  this,  every  profession  can  erect  its  own  place  of  worship,  if 
it  choose — support  its  own  priests,  if  it  choose  to  have  any — or 
perform  its  worship  without  priests,  as  the  Quakers  do. 

As  to  bells,  they  are  a  public  nuisance.  If  one  profession  is 
to  have  bells,  and  another  has  the  right  to  use  the  instruments  of 
the  same  kind,  or  any  other  noisy  instrument.  Some  may  choose 
to  meet  at  the  sound  of  cannon,  another  at  the  beat  of  drum, 
another  at  the  sound  of  trumpets,  and  so  on,  until  the  whole  be- 
comes a  scene  of  general  confusion.  But  if  we  permit  ourselves 
to  think  of  the  state  of  the  sick,  and  the  many  sleepless  nights 
and  days  they  undergo,  we  shall  feel  the  impropriety  of  increasing 
their  distress  by  the  noise  of  bells,  or  any  other  noisy  instruments. 

Quiet  and  private  domestic  devotion  neither  offends  nor  incom- 
modes any  body  ;  and  the  constitution  has  wisely  guarded  against 
the  use  of  externals.  Bells  come  under  this  description,  and 
public  processions  still  more  so — Streets  and  highways  are  for  the 
accommodation  of  persons  following  their  several  occupations, 
and  no  sectary  has  a  right  to  incommode  them — If  any  one  has, 
every  other  has  the  same  ;  and  the  meeting  of  various  and  con- 
traditory  processions  would  be  tumultuous.  Those  who  formed 
the  constitution  had  wisely  reflected  upon  these  cases ;  and, 
whilst  they  were  careful  to  reserve  the  equal  right  of  every  one, 
they  restrained  every  one  from  giving  offence,  or  incommoding 
another. 

Men  who,  through  a  long  and  tumultuous  scene,  have  lived  in 
retirement  as  you  have  done,  may  think,  when  they  arrive  at 
power,  that  nothing  is  more  easy  than  to  put  the  world  to  rights  in 
an  instant ;  they  form  to  themselves  gay  ideas  at  the  success  of 
their  projects  ;  but  they  forget  to  contemplate  the  difficulties  that 
attend  them,  and  the  dangers  with  which  they  are  pregnant. 
Alas  !  nothing  is  so  easy  as  to  deceive  one's  self.  Did  all  men 
think,  as  you  think,  or  as  you  say,  your  plan  would  need  no  ad- 
vocate, because  it  would  have  no  opposer ;  but  there  are  millions 
who  think  differently  to  you,  and  who  are  determined  to  be  neither 
the  dupes  nor  the  slaves  of  error  or  design. 

It  is  your  good  fortune  to  arrive  at  power,  when  the  sunshine  of 
pros.oerity  is  breathing  forth  after  a  long  and  stormy  night.  The 
firmness  of  your  colleagues,  and  of  those  you  have  succeeded — 
(he  unabated  energy  of  the  Directory,  and  the  unequalled  bravery 


LETTER  TO  CAMILLE  JORDAN.  209 

of  the  armies  of  the  Republic,  have  made  the  way  smooth  and 
ensy  to  you.  If  vou  look  back  at  the  difficulties  that  existed 
wnen  the  constitution  commenced,  you  cannot  but  be  confounded 
with  admiration  at  the  difference  between  that  time  and  now.  At 
that  moment  the  Directory  were  placed  like  the  forlorn  hope  of  an 
army,  but  you  were  in  safe  retirement.  They  occupied  the  post 
of  honourable  danger,  and  they  have  merited  well  of  their  country. 

You  talk  of  justice  and  benevolence,  but  you  begin  at  the 
wronff  end.  The  defenders  of  your  country,  and  the  deplorable 
state  of  the  poor,  are  objects  of  prior  consideration  to  priests 
and  bells  and  gaudy  processions. 

You  talk  of  peace,  but  your  manner  of  talking  of  it  embarrasses 
the  Directory  in  making  it,  and  serves  to  prevent  it.  Had  you 
been  an  actor  in  all  the  scenes  of  government  from  its  commence- 
ment, you  would  have  been  too  well  informed  to  have  brought  for- 
ward projects  that  operate  to  encourage  the  enemy.  When  you 
arrived  at  a  share  in  the  government,  you  found  every  thing  tend- 
ing to  a  prosperous  issue.  A  series  of  victories  unequalled  in  the 
world,  and  in  the  obtaining  of  which  you  had  no  share,  preceded 
your  arrival.  Every  enemy  but  one  was  subdued  ;  and  that  one, 
(the  Hanoverian  government  of  England,)  deprived  of  every 
hope,  and  a  bankrupt  in  all  its  resources,  was  sueing  for  peace. 
In  such  a  state  of  things,  no  new  question  that  might  tend  to  agi- 
tate and  anarchize  the  interior,  ought  to  have  had  place  ;  and  the 
project  you  propose,  tends  directly  to  that  end. 

Whilst  France  was  a  monarchy,  and  under  the  government  of 
those  things  called  kings  and  priests,  England  could  always  defeat 
her;  but  since  France  has  RISEN  TO  BE  A  REPUBLIC, 
the  Government  of  England  crouches  beneath  her,  so  great 
is  the  difference  between  a  government  of  kings  and  priests,  and 
that  which  is  founded  on  the  system  of  representation.  But, 
could  the  government  of  England  find  a  way,  under  the  sanction 
of  your  report,  to  inundate  France  with  a  flood  of  emigrant  priests, 
she  would  find  also  the  way  to  domineer  as  before  ;  she  would  re- 
trieve her  shattered  finances  at  your  expence,  and  the  ringing  of 
bells  would  be  the  tocsin  of  your  downfall. 

Did  peace  consist  in  nothing  but  the  cessation  of  war,  it  would 

not  be  difficult ;  but  the  terms  are  yet  to  be  arranged  ;  and  those 

terms  will  be  better  or  worse,  in  proportion  as  France  and  her 

councils  be  united  or  divided.     That  the  government  of  England 

27 


210  LETTER    TO    CAMILLE    JORDAN. 

counts  much  upon  your  report,  and  upon  others  of  a  similar  ten- 
dency, is  what  the  writer  of  this  letter,  who  knows  that  govern- 
ment well,  has  no  doubt.  You  are  but  new  on  the  theatre  of  go- 
vernment, and  you  ought  to  suspect  yourself  of  misjudging ;  the 
experience  of  those  who  have  gone  before  you,  should  be  of  some 
service  to  you. 

But  if,  in  consequence  of  such  measures  as  you  propose,  you 
put  it  out  of  the  power  of  the  Directory  to  make  a  good  peace, 
and  to  accept  of  terms  you  would  afterwards  reprobate,  it  is  your- 
selves that  must  bear  the  censure. 

You  conclude  your  report  by  the  following  address  to  your  col- 
leagues : — 

"  Let  us  hasten,  representatives  of  the  people !  to  affix  to  these 
tutelary  laws  the  seal  of  our  unanimous  approbation.  All  our  fel- 
low-citizens will  learn  to  cherish  political  liberty  from  the  enjoy- 
ment of  religious  liberty  :  you  will  have  broken  the  most  power- 
ful arm  of  your  enemies  ;  you  will  have  surrounded  this  assembly 
with  the  most  impregnant  rampart — confidence,  and  the  people's 
love.  0  !  my  colleagues  !  how  desirable  is  that  popularity  which 
is  the  offspring  of  good  laws !  What  a  consolation  it  will  be  to  us 
hereafter,  when  returned  to  our  own  fire-sides,  to  hear  from  the 
mouths  of  our  fellow-citizens,  these  simple  expressions — Bles- 
sings reivard  you,  men  of  peace  !  you  have  restored  to  us  our  tern- 
pies — our  ministers — the  liberty  of  adoring  the  God  of  our  fa- 
thers  :  you  have  recalled  harmony  to  our  families — morality  to  our 
hearts :  you  have  made  us  adore  the  legislature  and  respect  all 
its  laws .'" 

Is  it  possible,  citizen  representative,  that  you  can  be  serious  in 
this  address  ?  Were  the  lives  of  the  priests  under  the  ancient  re- 
gime such  as  to  justify  any  thing  you  say  of  them  1  Where  not  all 
France  convinced  of  their  immorality  1  Were  they  not  considered 
as  the  patrons  of  debauchery  and  domestic  infidelity,  and  not  as 
the  patrons  of  morals  1  What  was  their  pretended  celibacy  but 
perpetual  adultery  \  What  was  their  blasphemous  pretentions  to 
forgive  sins,  but  an  encouragement  to  the  commission  of  them, 
and  a  love  for  their  own  ?  Do  you  want  to  lead  again  into  France 
all  the  vices  of  which  they  have  been  the  patrons,  and  to  over- 
spread the  republic  with  English  pensioners  !  It  is  cheaper  to  cor- 
rupt than  to  conquer  ;  and  the  English  government,  unable  to 


LETTER    TO    CAMILLK    JORDAN.  211 

conquer ;  will  stoop  to  corrupt.    Arrogance  and  meanness,  though 
in  appearance  opposite,  are  vices  of  the  same  heart. 

Instead  of  concluding  in  the  manner  you  have  done,  you  ought 
rather  to  have  said, 

"  0  !  my  colleagues !  we  are  arrived  at  a  glorious  period — a 
period  that  promises  more  than  we  could  have  expected,  and  aH 
that  we  could  have  wished.  Let  us  hasten  to  take  into  consider- 
ation the  honours  and  rewards  due  to  our  brave  defenders.  Let 
us  hasten  to  give  encouragement  to  agriculture  and  manufactures, 
that  commerce  may  reinstate  itself,  and  our  people  have  employ- 
ment. Let  us  review  the  condition  of  the  suffering  poor,  and 
wipe  irom  our  country  the  reproach  of  forgetting  them.  Let  us 
devise  means  to  establish  schools  of  instruction,  that  we  may 
banish  the  ignorance  that  the  ancient  regime  of  kings  and  priests 
had  spread  among  the  people. — Let  us  propagate  morality,  un- 
fettered by  superstition — Let  us  cultivate  justice  and  benevo- 
lence, that  the  God  of  our  fathers  may  bless  us.  The  helpless 
infant  and  the  aged  poor  cry  to  us  to  remember  them — Let  not 
wretchedness  be  seen  in  our  streets — Let  France  exhibit  to  the 
world  the  glorious  example  of  expelling  ignorance  and  misery 
together. 

"  Let  these,  my  virtuous  colleagues,  be  the  subject  of  our  care, 
that,  when  we  return  among  our  fellow-citizens,  they  may  say. 
Worthy  representatives  !  you  have  done  well.  You  have  done  jus- 
tice  and  honour  to  our  brave  defenders.  You  have  encouraged 
agriculture — cherished  our  decayed  manufactures — given  new  life 
to  commerce,  and  employment  to  our  people.  You  have  removed 
from  our  country  the  reproach  of  forgetting  the  poor — You  have 
caused  the  cry  of  the  orphan  to  cease — You  have  loiped  the  tear 
from  the  eye  of  the  suffering  mother — You  have  given  comfort  to 
the  aged  and  infirm — You  have  penetrated  into  the  gloomy  recesses 
of  wretchedness,  and  have  banished  it.  Welcome  among  us,  ye 
brave  and  virtuous  representatives !  and  may  your  example  be 
followed  by  your  successors  /" 

THOMAS  PAINE. 
Parisy  1797. 


AN 

EXAMINATION 

OF   THE 

PASSAGES  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT, 

aUOTED  FROM  THE  OLD, 

AND   CALLED 

PROPHECIES   CONCERNING  JESUS  CHRIST. 


TO    WHICH    IS    PREFIXED 

AN  ESSAY  ON  DREAM, 

ALSO, 
CONTAINING  THE 

CONTRADICTORY  DOCTRINES  BETWEEN  MATTHEW  AND  MARK; 

ASS  117 

PRIVATE  THOUGHTS  ON  A  FUTURE  STATE. 


PREFACE. 


TC  THE  MINISTERS  AND  PREACHERS  OF  ALL  DENOMINATIONS 
OF  RELIGION. 


It  is  the  duty  of  every  man,  as  far  as  his  ability  extends,  to  de- 
iect  and  expose  delusion  and  error.  But  nature  has  not  given  to 
every  one  a  talent  for  the  purpose  ;  and  among  those  to  whom 
Buch  a  talent  is  given,  there  is  often  a  want  of  disposition  or  of 
courage  to  do  it. 

The  world,  or  more  properly  speaking,  that  small  part  of  it 
called  Christendom,  or  the  Christian  World,  has  been  amused  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years  with  accounts  of  Prophecies  in  the 
Old  Testament,  about  the  coming  of  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ, 
and  thousands  of  sermons  have  been  preached,  and  volumes  writ- 
ten, to  make  man  believe  it. 

In  the  following  treatise  I  have  examined  all  the  passages  in 
the  New  Testament,  quoted  from  the  Old,  and  called  prophecies 
concerning  Jesus  Christ,  and  I  find  no  such  thing  as  a  prophecy  of 
any  such  person,  and  I  deny  there  are  any.  The  passages  all  re- 
late to  circumstances  the  Jewish  nation  was  in  at  the  time  they 
were  written  or  spoken,  and  not  to  any  thing  that  was  or  was  not 
to  happen  in  the  world  several  hundred  years  afterwards  ;  and  I 
have  shown  what  the  circumstances  were,  to  which  the  passages 
apply  or  refer.  I  have  given  chapter  and  verse  for  every  thing  I 
have  said,  and  have  not  gone  out  of  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament  for  evidence  that  the  passages  are  not  prophecies  of  the 
person  called  Jesus  Christ. 


216  PREFACE 

The  prejudice  of  unfounded  belief,  often  degenerates  into  the 
prejudice  of  custom,  and  becomes,  at  last,  rank  hypocrisy.  When 
men,  from  custom  or  fashion,  or  any  worldly  motive,  profess  or 
pretend  to  believe  what  they  do  not  believe,  nor  can  give  any  rea- 
son for  believing,  they  unship  the  helm  of  their  morahty,  and  being 
no  longer  honest  to  their  own  minds,  they  feel  no  moral  difficulty 
in  being  unjust  to  others.  It  is  from  the  influence  of  this  vice, 
hypocrisy,  that  we  see  so  many  Church  and  Meeting-going  pro- 
fessors and  pretenders  to  religion,  so  full  of  trick  and  deceit  in 
their  dealings,  and  so  loose  in  the  performance  of  their  engage- 
ments, that  they  are  not  to  be  trusted  further  than  the  laws  of  the 
country  will  bind  them.  Morality  has  no  hold  on  their  minds,  no 
restraint  on  their  actions. 

One  set  of  preachers  make  salvation  to  consist  in  believing. 
They  tell  their  congregations,  that  if  they  believe  in  Christ,  their 
sins  shall  be  forgiven.  This,  in  the  first  place,  is  an  encourage- 
ment to  sin,  in  a  similar  manner  as  v.hen  a  prodigal  young  fellow 
is  told  his  father  will  pay  all  his  debts,  he  runs  into  debt  the  faster, 
and  becomes  the  more  extravagant :  Daddy,  says  he,  pays  all,  and 
on  he  goes.  Just  so  in  the  other  case,  Christ  pays  all,  and  on 
goes  the  sinner. 

In  the  next  place,  the  doctrine  these  men  preach  is  not  true. 
The  New  Testament  rests  itself  for  credulity  and  testimony  on 
what  are  called  prophecies  in  the  Old  Testament,  of  the  person 
called  Jesus  Christ ;  and  if  there  are  no  such  thing  as  prophecies 
of  any  such  person  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  New  Testament  is 
a  forgery  of  the  councils  of  Nice  and  Laodocia,  and  tne  faith 
founded  thereon,  delusion  and  falsehood.* 

Another  set  of  preachers  tell  their  congregations  that  God  pre- 
destinated and  selected  from  all  eternity,  a  certain  number  to  be 
saved,  and  a  certain  number  to  be  damned  eternally.  If  this  were 
true,  the  day  of  Judgment  is  past:  their  preaching  is  in  vain, 
and  they  had  better  work  at  some  useful  calling  for  their  liveli- 
hood. 

This  doctrine,  also,  like  the  former,  hath  a  direct  tendency  to 
demoralize  mankind.     Can  a  bad  man  be  reformed  by  telling  him, 

*  The  councils  of  Nice  and  Laodocia  were  held  about  350  years  after  the 
time  Christ  is  said  to  have  lived  ;  and  the  books  that  now  compose  the  New 
Testament,  were  then  vnted  for  by  teas  and  nays,  as  we  now  vote  a  law.  A 
great  many  that  were  offered  had  a  majority  of  nays,  and  were  rejected.  This 
IS  the  way  the  New  Testament  came  into  being. 


PREFACE  217 

that  if  he  is  one  of  those  who  was  decreed  to  be  damned  before  he 
was  born,  his  reformation  will  do  him  no  good  ;  and  if  he  was  de- 
creed to  be  saved,  he  will  be  saved  whether  he  believes  it  or  not ; 
for  this  is  the  result  of  the  doctrine.  Such  preaching,  and  such 
preachers,  do  injury  to  the  moral  world.  They  had  better  be  at 
the  plough. 

As  in  my  political  works  my  motive  and  object  have  been  to 
give  man  an  elevated  sense  of  his  own  character,  and  free  him 
from  the  slavish  and  superstitious  absurdity  of  monarchy  and 
hereditary  government,  so  in  my  publications  on  religious  subjects 
my  endeavours  have  been  directed  to  bring  man  to  a  right  use  of 
tne  reason  that  God  has  given  him  ;  to  impress  on  him  the  great 
principles  of  divine  morality,  justice,  mercy,  and  a  benevolent 
disposition  to  all  men,  and  to  all  creatures,  and  to  inspire  in  him  a 
spirit  of  trust,  confidence  and  consolation  in  his  Creator,  unshack- 
ted.  by  the  fables  of  books  pretending  to  be  the  vjord  of  God. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


AN  ESSAY  ON  DREAMS. 


As  a  great  deal  is  said  in  the  New  Testament  about  dreams,  it 
is  first  necessary  to  explain  the  nature  of  dream,  and  to  show  by 
what  operation  of  the  mind  a  dream  is  produced  during  sleep. 
When  this  is  understood  we  shall  be  the  better  enabled  to  judge 
whether  any  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  them  ;  and,  consequently, 
whether  the  several  matters  in  the  New  Testament  related  of 
dreams  deserve  the  credit  which  the  writers  of  that  book  and 
priests  and  commentators  ascribe  to  them. 

In  order  to  understand  the  nature  of  dreams,  or  of  that  which 
passes  in  ideal  vision  during  a  state  of  sleep,  it  is  first  necessary 
to  understand  the  composition  and  decomposition  of  the  human 
mind. 

The  three  great  faculties  of  the  mind  are  imagination,  judge- 
ment and  MEMORY.  Every  action  of  the  mind  comes  under  one 
or  the  other  of  these  faculties.  In  a  state  of  wakefulness,  as  in  the 
day-time,  these  three  faculties  arc  all  active  ;  but  that  is  seldom 
the  case  in  sleep,  and  never  perfectly :  and  this  is  the  cause  that 
our  dreams  are  not  so  regular  and  rational  as  our  waking  thoughts. 

The  seat  of  that  collection  of  powers  or  faculties,  that  consti- 
tute what  is  called  the  mind,  is  in  the  brain.  There  is  not,  and 
cannot  be,  any  visible  demonstration  of  this  anatomically,  but  ac- 
cidents happening  to  living  persons,  show  it  to  be  so.  An  injury 
done  to  the  brain  by  a  fracture  of  the  skull,  will  sometimes  change 
a  wise  man  into  a  childish  idiot :  a  being  without  mind.  But  so 
careful  has  nature  been  of  that  sanctum  sanctorum  of  man,  the 
brain,  that  of  all  the  external  accidents  to  which  humanity  is  sub- 
ject, this  happens  the  most  seldom.  But  we  often  see  it  happen- 
ing by  long  and  habitual  intemperance. 


220  AN    ESSAY    ON    DREAM. 

Whether  those  three  faculties  occupy  distinct  apartments  of  the 
brain,  is  known  only  to  that  Almighty  power  that  formed  and 
organized  it.  We  can  see  the  external  effects  of  muscular  motion 
in  all  the  members  of  the  body,  though  its  prmwrn  mobile,  or  first 
moving  cause,  is  unknown  to  man.  Our  external  motions  are 
sometimes  the  effect  of  intention,  and  sometimes  not.  If  we  are 
sitting  and  intend  to  rise,  or  standing  and  intend  to  set,  or  to  walk, 
the  limbs  obey  that  intention  as  if  they  heard  the  order  given.  But 
we  make  a  thousand  motions  every  day,  and  that  as  well  waking 
as  sleeping,  that  have  no  prior  intention  to  direct  them.  Each 
member  acts  as  if  it  had  a  will  or  mind  of  its  own.  Man  governs 
the  whole  when  he  pleases  to  govern,  but  in  the  interims  the  sev- 
eral parts,  like  little  suburbs,  govern  themselves  without  consulting 
the  sovereign. 

But  all  these  motions,  whatever  be  the  generating  cause,  are 
external  and  visible.  But  with  respect  to  the  brain,  no  ocular 
observation  can  be  made  upon  it.  All  is  mystery  ;  all  is  darkness 
in  that  womb  of  thought. 

Whether  the  brain  is  a  mass  of  matter  in  continual  rest ;  whether 
it  has  a  vibrating  pulsative  motion,  or  a  heaving  and  falling  mo- 
tion, like  matter  in  fermentation  ;  whether  different  parts  of  the 
bram  nave  different  motions  according  to  the  faculty  that  is  em- 
ployed, be  it  the  imagination,  the  judgment,  or  the  memory,  man 
knows  nothing  of  it.  He  knows  not  the  cause  of  his  own  wit.  His 
own  brain  conceals  it  from  him. 

Comparing  invisible  by  visible  things,  as  metaphysical  can 
sometimes  be  compared  to  physical  things,  the  operations  of  those 
distinct  and  several  faculties  have  some  resemblance  to  the  me- 
chanism of  a  watch.  The  main  spring  which  puts  all  in  motioHf 
corresponds  to  the  imagination  :  the  pendulum  or  balance,  which 
corrects  and  regulates  that  motion,  corresponds  to  the  judgment ; 
and  the  hand  and  dial,  like  the  memory,  record  the  operations. 

Now  in  proportion  as  these  several  faculties  sleep,  slumber,  oi 
keep  awake,  during  the  continuance  of  a  dream,  in  that  proportion 
the  dream  will  be  reasonable  or  frantic,  remembered  or  forgotten. 
If  there  is  any  faculty  in  mental  man  that  never  sleeps,  it  is  that 
volatile  thing  the  imagination  :  the  case  is  different  with  the  judg- 
ment and  memory.  The  sedate  and  sober  constitution  of  the 
judgment  easily  disposes  it  to  rest ;  and  as  to  the  memory,  it 
•ecords  in  silence,  and  is  active  only  when  it  is  called  upon. 


AN    ESSAY    ON    DREAM.  22J 

That  the  judgment  soon  goes  to  sleep  may  be  perceived  by  our 
sometimes  beginning  to  dream  before  we  are  fully  asleep  our- 
selves. Someranuom  thought  runs  in  the  mind,  and  we  start,  as 
it  were,  into  recollection  that  we  are  dreaming  between  sleeping 
and  waking. 

If  the  judgment  sleeps  whilst  the  imagination  keeps  awake,  the 
dream  will  be  a  riotous  assemblage  of  mis-shapen  images  and  ran- 
ting ideas,  and  the  more  active  the  imagination  is,  the  wilder  the 
dream  will  be.  The  most  inconsistent  and  the  most  impossible 
things  will  appear  right ;  because  that  faculty,  whose  province  it 
is  to  keep  order,  is  in  a  state  ot  absence.  The  master  of  the 
school  is  gone  out,  and  the  boys  are  in  an  uproar. 

If  the  memory  sleeps,  we  shall  have  no  other  knowledge  of  the 
dream  than  that  we  have  dreamt,  without  knowing  what  it  was 
about.  In  this  case  it  is  sensation,  rather  than  recollection,  that 
acts.  The  dream  has  given  us  some  sense  of  pain  or  trouble,  and 
we  feel  it  as  a  hurt,  rather  than  remember  it  as  a  vision. 

If  memory  only  slumbers,  we  shall  have  a  faint  remembrance 
of  the  dream,  and  after  a  few  minutes  it  will  sometimes  happen 
that'  the  principal  passages  of  the  dream  will  occur  to  us  more 
fully.  The  cause  of  this  is,  that  the  memory  will  sometimes  con- 
tinue slumbering  or  sleeping  after  we  are  awake  ourselves,  and 
that  so  fully,  that  it  may,  and  sometimes  does  happen,  that  we  do 
not  immediately  recollect  where  we  are,  nor  what  we  have  been 
about,  or  have  to  do.  But  when  the  memory  starts  into  wakeful- 
ness, it  brings  the  knowledge  of  these  things  back  upon  us,  like  a 
flood  of  light,  and  sometimes  the  dream  with  it. 

But  the  most  curious  circumstance  of  the  mind  in  a  state  of 
dream,  is  the  power  it  has  to  become  the  agent  of  every  person, 
character  and  thing,  of  which  it  dreams.  It  carries  on  conversa- 
tion with  several,  asks  questions,  hears  answers,  gives  and  receives 
information,  and  it  acts  all  these  parts  itself. 

But  however  various  and  eccentric  the  imagination  may  be  in  the 
creation  of  images  and  ideas,  it  cannot  supply  the  place  of  memo- 
ry, with  respect  to  things  that  are  forgotten  when  we  are  awake. 
For  example,  if  we  have  forgotten  the  name  of  a  person,  and  dream 
of  seeing  him  and  asking  him  his  name,  he  cannot  tell  it ;  for  it  is 
ourselves  asking  ourselves  the  question. 

But  though  the  imagination  cannot  supply  the  place  of  real 
memory,  it  has  the  wild  faculty  of  counterfeiting  memory.     It 


222  AN    ESSAY    ON    DREAM 

dreams  of  persons  it  never  knew,  and  talks  with  them  as  if  it  re- 
membered them  as  old  acquaintances.  It  relates  circumstances 
thatnevet  happened,  and  tells  them  as  if  they  had  happened.  It 
goes  to  places  that  never  existed,  and  knows  where  all  the  streets 
and  houses  are,  as  if  it  had  been  there  before.  The  scenes  it  cre- 
ates often  appear  as  scenes  remembered.  It  will  sometimes  act 
a  dream  within  a  dream,  and,  in  the  delusion  of  dreaming,  tell  a 
dream  it  never  dreamed,  and  tell  it  as  if  it  was  from  memory.  It 
may  also  be  remarked,  that  the  imagination  in  a  dream,  has  no  idea 
of  time,  as  time.  It  counts  only  by  circumstances  ;  and  if  a  suc- 
cession of  circumstances  pass  in  a  dream  that  would  require  a 
great  length  of  time  to  accomplish  them,  it  will  appear  to  the 
dreamer  that  a  length  of  time  equal  thereto  has  passed  also. 

As  this  is  the  state  of  the  mind  in  dream,  it  may  rationally  be 
said  that  every  person  is  mad  once  in  twenty-four  hours,  for  were 
he  to  act  in  the  day  as  he  dreams  in  the  night,  he  would  be  con- 
fined for  a  lunatic.  In  a  state  of  wakefulness,  those  three  facul- 
ties being  all  alive,  and  acting  in  union,  constitute  the  rational 
man.  In  dreams  it  is  otherwise,  and,  therefore,  that  state  which  is 
called  insanity,  appears  to  be  no  other  than  a  disunion  of  those 
faculties,  and  a  cessation  of  the  judgment  during  wakefulness,  that 
we  so  often  experience  during  sleep  ;  and  idiocity,  into  which 
some  persons  have  fallen,  is  that  cessation  of  all  the  faculties  of 
which  we  can  be  sensible  when  we  happen  to  wake  before  our 
memory. 

In  this  view  of  the  mind,  how  absurd  is  it  to  place  reliance  upon 
dreams,  and  how  much  more  absurd  to  make  them  a  foundation 
for  religion  ;  yet  the  belief  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God, 
begotten  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  a  being  never  heard  of  before,  stands 
on  the  story  of  an  old  man's  dream.  "  Jlnd  behold  the  angel  of 
the  Lord  appeared  to  Joseph  in  a  dream,  saying;  Joseph,  thou  son 
oj  David,  fear  not  thou  to  take  unto  thee  J^Iary  thy  wife,  for  that 
hich  is  conceived  in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost.^' — Matt.  chap.  i. 
verse  20. 

After  this  we  have  the  childish  stories  of  three  or  four  other 
dreams  1  about  Joseph  going  into  Egypt ;  about  his  coming  back 
again  ;  about  this,  and  about  that,  and  this  story  of  dreams  has 
thrown  Europe  into  a  dream  for  more  than  a  thousand  years.  All 
the  efforts  that  nature,  reason,  and  conscience  have  made  to  awak- 
en man  from  it,  have  been  ascribed  by  priestcraft  and  superstition 


AN    ESSAY    ON    DREAM.  223 

to  the  workings  of  the  devil,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  AmericaQ 
revolution,  which,  by  establishing  the  imiversol  right  of  conscience^ 
first  opened  the  way  to  free  discussion,  and  for  the  French  revo- 
lution which  followed,  this  religion  of  dreams  had  continued  to  be 
preached,  and  that  after  it  had  ceased  to  be  believed.  Those  who 
preached  it  and  did  not  believe  it,  still  believed  the  delusion  neces- 
sary. They  were  not  bold  enough  to  be  honest,  nor  honest  enough 
to  be  bold. 

[Every  new  religion,  like  a  new  play,  requires  a  new  apparatus 
of  dresses  and  machinery,  to  fit  the  new  characters  it  creates. 
The  story  of  Christ  in  the  New  Testament  brings  a  new  being 
upon  the  stage,  which  it  calls  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  the  story  of 
Abraham,  the  father  of  the  Jews,  in  the  Old  Testament,  gives  ex- 
istence to  a  new  order  of  beings  it  calls  Angels. — There  was  no 
Holy  Ghost  before  the  time  of  Christ,  nor  Angels  before  the  time 
of  Abraham. — We  hear  nothing  of  these  winged  gentlemen,  till 
more  than  two  thousand  years,  according  to  the  Bible  chronology, 
from  the  time  they  say  the  heavens,  the  earth,  and  all  therein  were 
ma3e : — After  this,  they  hop  about  as  thick  as  birds  in  a  grove  : — 
The  first  we  hear  of,  pays  his  addresses  to  Hagar  in  the  wilder- 
ness ;  then  three  of  them  visit  Sarah  ;  another  wrestles  a  fall  with 
Jacob  ;  and  these  birds  of  passage  having  found  their  way  to 
earth  and  back,  are  continually  coming  and  going.  They  eat  and 
drink,  and  up  again  to  heaven. — What  they  do  with  the  food  they 
carry  away,  the  Bible  does  not  tell  us. — Perhaps  they  do  as  the 
birds  do.         *         *         * 

One  would  think  that  a  system  loaded  with  such  gross  and  vul- 
gar absurdities  as  scripture  religion  is,  could  never  have  obtained 
credit ;  yet  we  have  seen  what  priestcraft  and  fanaticism  could  do, 
and  credulity  believe. 

From  angels  in  the  old  Testament  we  get  to  prophets,  to 
witches,  to  seers  of  visions,  and  dreamers  of  dreams,  and  some- 
times we  are  told,  as  in  2  Sam.  chap.  ix.  ver.  15,  that  God  Avhis- 
pers  in  the  ear — At  other  times  we  are  not  told  how  the  impulse 
was  given,  or  whether  sleeping  or  waking — In  2  Sam.  chap.  xxiv. 
ver.  1,  it  is  said,  "  ^nd  again  the  anger  of  the  Lord  itxis  kindled 
against  Israel,  and  he  moved  David  agaiiist  them  to  say  go  number 
Israel  and  Jiidah." — And  in  1  Chro.  chap.  xxi.  ver.  1,  when  the 
same  story  is  again  related,  it  is  said,  "  and  Satan  stood  up 
against  Israel,  and  moved  David  to  number  Isi'aeV 


224  AN    ESSAY   ON    DREAM. 

Whether  this  was  done  sleeping  or  waking,  we  are  not  told,  but 
it  seems  that  David,  whom  they  call  "  a  man  after  God's  own 
heart,"  did  not  know  by  what  spirit  he  was  moved  ;  and  as  to  the 
men  called  inspired  penmen,  they  agree  so  well  about  the  matter, 
that  in  one  book  they  say  that  it  was  God,  and  in  the  other  that  it 
was  the  Devil. 

The  idea  that  writers  of  the  Old  Testament  had  of  a  God  was 
boisterous,  contemptible,  and  vulgar. — They  make  him  the  Mars 
of  the  Jews,  the  fighting  God  of  Israel,  the  conjuring  God  of  their 
Priests  and  Prophets. — They  tell  as  many  fables  of  him  as  the 
Greeks  told  of  Hercules.  *  *  *  * 

They  make  their  God  to  say  exultingly,  "  /  loill  get  me  honour 
upon  Pharoah  and  upon  his  Host,  tipon  his  Chariots  and  upon  his 
Horsemen." — And  that  he  may  keep  his  word,  they  make  him  set 
a  trap  in  the  Red  Sea,  in  the  dead  of  the  night,  for  Pharoah,  his 
host,  and  his  horses,  and  drown  them  as  a  rat-catcher  would  do 
so  many  rats — Great  honour  indeed  !  the  story  of  Jack  the  giant- 
killer  is  better  told ! 

They  pit  him  against  the  Egyptian  magicians  to  conjure  with 
him,  the  three  first  essays  are  a  dead  match — Each  party  turns 
his  rod  into  a  serpent,  the  rivers  into  blood,  and  creates  frogs ; 
but  upon  the  fourth,  the  God  of  the  Israelites  obtains  the  laurel, 
he  covers  them  all  over  with  lice  ! — The  Egyptian  magicians  can- 
not do  the  same,  and  this  lousy  triumph  proclaims  the  victory  ! 

They  make  their  God  to  rain  fire  and  brimstone  upon  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah,  and  belch  fire  and  smoke  upon  mount  Sinai,  as  if 
he  was  the  Pluto  of  the  lower  regions.  They  make  him  salt  up 
Lot's  wife  like  pickled  pork ;  they  make  him  pass  like  Shak 
speare's  Queen  Mab  into  the  brain  of  their  priests,  prophets,  and 
prophetesses,  and  tickle  them  into  dreams,  and  after  making  him 
play  all  kind  of  tricks  they  confound  him  with  Satan,  and  leave 
us  at  a  loss  to  know  what  God  they  meant ! 

This  is  the  descriptive  God  of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  as  to 
the  New,  though  the  authors  of  it  have  varied  the  scene,  they  have 
continued  the  vulgarity. 

Is  man  ever  to  be  the  dupe  of  priestcraft,  the  slave  of  supersti 
tion  1  Is  he  never  to  have  just  ideas  of  his  Creator  ?  Is  it  bettei 
not  to  belief  there  is  a  God,  than  to  believe  of  him  falsely.  When 
we  behold  the  mighty  universe  that  surrounds  us,  and  dart  out  con- 
templation into  the  eternity  of  space,  filled  with  innumerable  orbs 


AN    F.SSAT    ON    DREAM.  225 

revolving  in  eternal  harmony,  how  paltry  must  the  talcs  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  prophanely  called  the  word  of  God, 
appear  to  thoughtful  man  !  The  stupendous  wisdom  and  unerring 
order,  that  reign  and  govern  throughout  this  wondrous  whole,  and 
call  us  to  reflection,  pz«/  to  shame  the  Bible  ! — The  God  of  eterni- 
ty and  of  all  that  is  real,  is  not  the  God  of  passing  dreams,  and 
shadows  of  man's  imagination !  The  God  of  truth  is  not  the  God 
of  fable;  the  belief  of  a  God  begotten  and  a  God  crucified,  is  a 
God  blasphemed It  is  making  a  profane  use  of  reason.]* 

1  shall  conclude  this  Essay  on  Dream  with  the  two  first  verses 
of  the  34th  chapter  of  Ecclesiasticus,  one  of  the  books  of  the 
Apiocrypha. 

"  The  hopes  of  a  man  void  of  understanding  are  vain  and  false; 
and  dreams  lift  tip  fools — Whoso  regardeth  dreams  is  dke  hir,% 
that  catcheth  at  a  shadoiv,  and  foUoiveth  after  the  loind.^' 

I  now  proceed  to  an  examination  of  the  passages  in  the  Bible, 
called  prophecies  of  the  coming  of  Christ,  and  to  show  there  are 
no  prophecies  of  any  such  person.  That  the  passages  clandes- 
tinely styled  prophecies  are  not  prophecies,  and  that  they  refer  to 
circumstances  the  Jewish  nation  was  in  at  the  time  they  were 
written  or  spoken,  and  not  to  any  distance  of  future  time  or 
person. 

*  Mr.  Paine  must  have  been  in  an  ill  humour  when  he  wrote  the  passage 
inclosed  m  crotchets,  commencing  at  page  223:  and  probably  on  reviewing  it, 
and  discovering  exceptionable  clauses,  was  induced  to  reject  the  whole,  as  it 
does  not  appear  in  the  edition  published  by  jiimsclf.  But  having  obtained  the 
original  in  the  hand  writing  of  Mi-.  P.  and  deeming 


original  in  the  hand  writing  of  Mr.  P.  and  deeming  some  of  the  reinarks  wor- 
thy of  beii 
exception 


thy  of  being  preserved,  I  have  thou?';'i  ,"'roper  to  restore  the  passage,  witli  the 
,  of  the  objectional  parts. — -iSi/i  i  on 


/  AN 

EXAMINATION 

OF    THE 

PASSAGES  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT, 

Q170TED    FROM    THE    OLD,   AND    CALLED    PROPHECIES    OF    THE    COMING    OP 

JESUS  CHRIST. 


[This  work  was  first  published  by  Mr.  Paine,  at  New- York, 
in  1S07,  and  was  the  last  of  his  writings  edited  by  himself.  It  is 
evidently  extracted  from  his  answer  to  the  bishop  of  LlandafF,  or 
from  his  third  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  both  of  which  it  appears 
by  his  will,  he  left  in  manuscript.  The  term,  "  Tlie  Bishojo,''^ 
occurs  in  this  examination  six  times  without  designating  what 
bishop  is  meant.  Of  all  the  replies  to  his  second  part  of  the  Age 
of  Reason,  that  of  bishop  Watson  was  the  only  one  to  which  he 
paid  particular  attention ;  and  he  is,  no  doubt,  the  person  nere 
alluded  to.  Bishop  Watson's  apology  for  the  Bible  had  been 
published  some  years  before  Mr.  P.  left  France,  and  the  latter 
composed  his  answer  to  it,  and  also  his  third  part  of  the  Age  of 
Reason,  while  in  that  country. 

When  Mr.  Paine  arrived  in  America,  and  found  that  liberal 
opinions  on  religion  were  in  disrepute,  through  the  influence  of 
hypocrisy  and  superstition,  he  declined  publishing  the  entire  of  the 
works  which  he  had  prepared  ;  observing  that  "  An  author  might 
lose  the  credit  he  had  acquired  by  writing  too  much."  He  how- 
ever gave  to  the  public  the  examination  before  us,  in  a  pamphlet 
form.  But  the  apathy  which  appeared  to  prevail  at  that  time  in 
regard  to  religious  inquiry,  fully  determined  him  to  discontinue 
the  publication  of  his  theological  writings.  In  this  case,  taking 
only  a  portion  of  one  of  the  works  before  mentioned,  he  chose  a 
title  adapted  to  the  particular  part  selected.] 


223  EXAMINATION    OF 

The  passages  called  Prophecies  of,  or  concerning,  Jesus  Christ, 
in  the  Old  Testament,  may  be  classed  under  the  two  followmg 
heads  : — 

First  those  referred  to  in  tli-.  X«ir  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, called  the  four  Evangelists,  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and 
John. 

•Secondly,  those  which  translators  and  commentators  have,  of 
their  own  imagination,  erected  into  prophecies,  and  dubbed  with 
that  title  at  the  head  of  the  several  chapters  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Of  these  it  is  scarcely  worth  while  to  waste  time,  ink,  and  paper 
upon  ;  I  shall,  therefore,  confine  myself  chiefly  to  those  refeiTcd 
to  in  the  aforesaid  four  books  of  the  New  Testament.  If  I  show 
that  these  are  not  prophecies  of  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ, 
nor  have  reference  to  any  such  person,  it  will  be  perfectly  need- 
less to  combat  those  which  translators,  or  the  Church,  have 
invented,  and  for  which  they  had  no  other  authority  than  their 
own  imagination. 

I  begin  with  the  book  called  the  Gospel  according  to  St. 
Matthew. 

In  the  first  chap.  ver.  18,  it  is  said,  "  J^'oiv  the  hirth  of  Jesus 
Christ-  was  in  this  wise ;  when  his  mother  JSIa'ry  ivas  espoused  to 
Joseph,  before  they  came  together  she  was  found  with  child 
BY  THE  holy  GHOST." — This  is  going  a  little  too  fast ;  because 
to  make  this  verse  agree  with  the  next  it  should  have  said  no  more 
than  that  she  icas  found  xt'ith  child ;  for  the  next  verse  says, 
"  Then  Joseph  her  husband  being  a  just  man,  and  not  willing  to 
make  her  a  public  example,  xvas  minded  to  put  her  away  privily." 
— Consequently  Joseph  had  found  out  no  more  than  that  she  was 
■with  child,  and  he  knew  it  was  not  by  himself. 

V.  20.  "  Jlnd  while  he  thought  of  these  things,  (that  is  whether 
he  should  put  her  away  privily,  or  make  a  public  example  of  her,) 
behold  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  ajjpeared  to  him  in  a  dream  (that 
is,  Joseph  dreamed  that  an  angel  appeared  unto  him)  saying, 
Joseph,  thou  son  of  David,  fear  not  to  take  unto  thee  Mary  thy 
wife,  for  that  ivhich  is  conceived  in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And 
she  shall  bring  forth  a  so7i  and  call  his  name  Jesus  ;  for  he  shall 
save  his  people  from  their  sins." 

Now,  without  entering  into  any  discussion  upon  the  merits  or 
demerits  of  the  account  here  given,  it  is  proper  to  observe,  that 
it    has    no  higher  authority  than  that  of  a  dream ;    for  it  is 


THE    PROPHECIES  229 

impossible  for  a  man  to  behold  any  thing  in  a  dream,  but  that 
which  he  dreams  of.  I  ask  not,  therefore,  whether  Joseph  (if 
there  was  such  a  man)  had  such  a  dream  or  not ;  because  admit- 
ting he  had,  it  proves  nothing.  So  wonderful  and  rational  is  the 
faculty  of  the  mind  in  dreams,  that  it  acts  the  part  of  all  the  cha- 
racters its  imagination  creates,  and  what  it  thinks  it  hears  from 
any  of  them,  is  no  other  than  what  the  roving  rapidity  of  its  own 
miagination  invents.  It  is,  therefore,  nothing  to  me  what  Joseph 
dreamed  of;  whether  of  the  fidelity  or  infidelity  of  his  wife. — I 
pay  no  regard  to  my  own  dreams,  and  I  should  be  weak  indeed  to 
put  faith  in  the  dreams  of  another. 

The  verses  that  follow  those  I  have  quoted,  are  the  words  of 
the  writer  of  the  book  of  Matthew.  "  JYow,  (says  he,)  all  this 
(that  is,  all  this  dreaming  and  this  pregnancy)  teas  done  that  it 
might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  of  the  Lord  by  the  Prophet^ 
saying, 

"  Behold  a  virgin  shall  be  xcith  child,  and  shall  bring  forth  a 
son,  and  they  shall  call  his  name  Emmanuel,  ivhich  being  in- 
tcrpreted,  is,  God  with  hs." 

This  passage  is  in  Isaiah,  chap.  vii.  ver.  14,  and  the  writer  of 
the  book  of  Matthew  endeavours  to  make  his  readers  believe  that 
this  passage  is  a  prophecy  of  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ.  It 
IS  no  such  thing — and  I  go  to  show  it  is  not.  But  it  is  first  ne- 
cessary that  I  explain  the  occasion  of  these  words  being  spoken 
by  Isaiah  ;  the  reader  will  then  easily  perceive,  that  so  far  from 
their  being  a  prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ,  they  have  not  the  least 
reference  to  such  a  person,  or  any  thing  that  could  happen  in  the 
time  that  Christ  is  said  to  have  lived — which  was  about  seven 
hundred  years  after  the  time  of  Isaiah.     The  case  is  this  ; 

On  the  death  of  Solomon  the  Jewish  nation  split  into  two  mon- 
archies :  one  called  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  the  capital  of  which 
was  Jerusalem  :  the  other  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  the  capital  of 
which  was  Samaria.  The  kingdom  of  Judah  followed  the  Une  of 
David,  and  the  kingdom  of  Israel  that  of  Saul ;  and  these  two 
rival  monarchies  frequently  carried  on  fierce  wars  against  each 
other. 

At  the  time  Ahaz  was  king  of  Judah,  which  was  in  the  time  of 
Isaiah,  Pekah  was  king  of  Israel ;  and  Pekah  joined  himself  to 
Rezin,  king  of  Syria,  to  make  war  against  Ahaz,  king  of  Judah  •■ 
and  these  two  kin^s  marched  a  confederated  ajid  powerful  army 


230  jSxamination  op 

against  Jerusalem.  Ahaz  and  his  people  became  alarmed  at  the 
danger,  and  "  their  hearts  ivere  moved  as  the  trees  of  the  loood  are 
moved  with  the  windy     Isaiah,  chap.  vii.  ver.  3. 

In  this  perilous  situation  of  things,  Isaiah  addressed  himself  to 
Ahaz,  and  assures  him,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  (the  cant  phrase 
of  all  the  prophets)  that  these  two  kings  should  not  succeed 
against  him  ;  and,  to  assure  him  that  this  should  be  the  case,  (the 
case  was  however  directly  contrary*)  tells  Ahaz  to  ask  a  sign  of 
the  Lord.  This  Ahaz  declined  doing,  giving  as  a  reason,  that  he 
would  not  tempt  the  Lord ;  upon  which  Isaiah  who  pretends  to 
be  sent  from  God,  says,  ver.  14,  "  Therefore  the  Lord  himself 
shall  give  you  a  sign,  behold  a  virgin  shall  conceive  and  bear  a 
S071 — Butter  and  honey  shall  he  eat,  that  he  may  know  to  refuse 
the  evil  and  choose  the  good — For  before  the  child  shall  know  to 
refuse  the  evil  and  choose  the  good,  the  land  which  thou  abhorrest 
shall  be  forsaken  of  both  her  kings" — meaning  the  king  of  Israel 
and  the  king  of  Syria,  who  were  marching  against  him. 

Here  then  is  the  sign,  which  was  to  be  the  birth  of  a  child,  and 
that  child  a  son  ;  and  here  also  is  the  time  limited  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  sign,  namely,  before  the  child  should  know  to  re- 
fuse the  evil  and  choose  the  good.' 

The  thing,  therefore,  to  be  a  sign  of  success  to  Ahaz,  must  be 
something  that  would  take  place  before  the  event  of  the  battle 
then  pending  between  him  and  the  two  kings  could  be  known.  A 
thing  to  be  a  sign  must  precede  the  thing  signified.  The  sign  of 
rain  must  be  before  the  rain. 

It  would  have  been  mockery  and  insulting  nonsense  for  Isaiah 
to  have  assured  Ahaz  as  a  sign,  that  these  two  kings  should  not 
prevail  against  him  :  that  a  child  should  be  born  seven  hundred 
years  after  he  was  dead  ;  and  that  before  the  child  so  born  should 
know  to  refuse  the  evil  and  choose  the  good,  he,  Ahaz,  should 
be  delivered  from  the  danger  he  was  then  immediately  threatened 
with. 

*  Chron.  cliap.  xxviii.  ver.  1st.  Mas  was  twenty  years  old  when  he  began 
to  reign,  and  he  reigned  sixteen  years  in  Jerusalem,  but  he  did  not  that  which  was 
right  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord. — ver.  5.  Wherefore  the  Lord  his  God  delivered 
him  into  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Syria,  and  they  smote  him,  and  carried  aicay 
a  great  midtitude  of  them  captive  and  brought  them  to  Damascus  ;  and  he  was 
also  delivered  into  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Israel,  loho  smote  him  with  a  great 
slaughter. 

Ver.  6.  .Mnd  Pekah  {king  of  Israel)  slew  in  Jiidah  an  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  in  one  day. — ver.  8.  ^nd  the  children  of  Israel  carried  aivay  captive  of 
their  brethren  tioo  hundred  thousand  loomen,  sons,  and  daughters. 


THE    PROPHECIES.  231 

But  the  case  is,  that  the  child  of  which  Isaiah  speaks  was  his 
oxen  child,  with  which  his  wife  or  his  mistress  was  then  pregnant ; 
for  he  says  in  the  next  chapter,  v.  2,  "  And  I  took  unto  me  faithful 
xcitnesses  to  record,  Uriah  the  priest,  and  Zechariah  the  son  of 
Jeberechiah ;  and  Iivent  unto  the  prophetess,  and  she  conceived  and 
bear  a  son ;"  and  he  says,  at  ver.  18  of  the  same  chapter,  "  Be- 
hold I  and  the  children  whom  the  Lord  hath  given  me  are  for 
signs  and  for  U'onders  in  Israel.^' 

It  may  not  be  improper  here  to  observe,  that  the  word  trans- 
lated a  virgin  in  Isaiah,  does  not  signify  a  virgin  in  Hebrew,  but 
merely  a  young  tvoman.  The  tense  also  is  falsified  in  the  trans- 
lation. Levi  gives  the  Hebrew  text  of  the  14th  ver.  of  the  7th 
chap,  of  Isaiah,  and  the  translation  in  English  with  it — "  Behold 
a  young  icoman  is  xvith  child  and  beareth  a  son.''''  The  expres- 
sion, says  he,  is  m  the  present  tense.  This  translation  agrees  with 
the  other  circumstances  related  of  the  birth  of  this  child,  which 
was  to  be  a  sign  to  Ahaz.  But  as  the  true  translation  could  not 
have  been  imposed  upon  the  world  as  a  prophecy  of  a  child  to  be 
born  seven  hundred  years  afterwards,  the  Christian  translators 
have  falsified  the  original :  and  instead  of  making  Isaiah  to  say, 
behold  a  young  woman  is  with  child  and  beareth  a  son — they  make 
him  to  say,  behold  a  virgin  shall  conceive  and  bear  a  son.  It  is, 
however,  only  necessary  for  a  person  to  read  the  7th  and  8th  chap- 
ters of  Isaiah,  and  he  will  be  convinced  that  the  passage  in  ques- 
tion is  no  prophecy  of  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ.  I  pass  on 
to  the  second  passage  quoted  from  the  Old  Testament  by  the  New, 
as  a  prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Matthew,  chap.  ii.  ver.  1.  "  Now  when  Jesus  was  born  in 
Bethlehem  of  Judah,  in*  the  days  of  Herod  the  king,  behold  there 
came  wise  men  from  the  east  to  Jerusalem — saying,  where  is  he 
that  is  born  king  of  the  Jews  1  for  we  have  seen  his  star  in  the 
east,  and  are  come  to  worship  him.  "When  Herod,  the  king, 
heard  these  things,  he  was  troubled,  and  all  Jerusalem  with  him 
— and  when  he  had  gathered  all  the  chief  priests  and  scribes  of 
the  people  together,  he  demanded  of  them  where  Christ  should  be 
born — and  they  said  unto  him  in  Bethlehem,  in  the  land  of  Ju- 
dea  :  for  thus  it  is  written  by  the  prophet — and  thou  Bethlehem^ 
in  the  land  ofJudea,  art  not  the  least  among  the  Princes  of  Judea 
for  out  of  thee  shall  come  a  Governor  that  shall  rule  my  people 
Israel."     This  passage  is  in  Micah,  chap.  5.  ver.  2. 


232  EXAMINATION    OF 

1  pass  over  the  absurdity  of  seeing  and  following  a  star  in  the 
day-time,  as  a  man  would  a  Will  ivith  the  imsp,  or  a  candle  and 
lantern  at  night ;  and  also  that  of  seeing  it  in  the  east,  when  them- 
selves came  from  the  east ;  for  could  such  a  thing  be  seen  at  all 
to  serve  them  for  a  guide,  it  must  be  in  the  west  to  them.  I  con- 
fine myself  solely  to  the  passage  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

The  book  of  Micah,  in  the  passage  above  quoted,  chap.  v.  ver. 
2,  is  speaking  of  some  person  without  mentioning  his  name  from 
whom  some  great  achievements  were  expected  ;  but  the  descrip- 
tion he  gives  of  this  person  at  the  5th  verse,  proves  evidently 
that  it  is  not  Jesus  Christ,  for  he  says  at  the  5th  ver.  "  and  this 
man  shall  be  the  peace  when  the  Assyrian  shall  come  i«to  our 
land,  and  when  he  shall  tread  in  our  palaces,  then  shall  we  raise 
up  against  him  (that  is,  against  the  Assyrian)  seven  shepherds 
and  eight  principal  men — v.  6.  And  they  shall  waste  the  land  of 
Assyria  with  the  sword,  and  the  land  of  Nimrod  on  the  entrance 
thereof;  thus  shall  He  (the  person  spoken  of  at  the  head  of  the 
second  verse)  deliver  us  from  the  Assyrian  when  he  cometh  into 
our  land,  and  when  he  treadeth  within  our  borders." 

This  is  so  evidently  descriptive  of  a  military  chief,  that  it  can- 
not be  applied  to  Christ  without  outraging  the  character  they  pic- 
tend  to  give  us  of  him.  Besides  which,  the  circumstances  of  the 
times  here  spoken  of,  and  those  of  the  times  in  which  Christ  is 
said  to  have  lived,  are  in  contradiction  to  each  other.  It  was  the 
Romans,  and  not  the  Assyrians,  that  had  conquered  and  tvere  in 
the  land  of  Judea,  and  trod  in  ihbir  palaces  when  Christ  was  born, 
and  when  he  died,  and  so  far  from  his  driving  them  out,  it  was 
they  who  signed  the  warrant  for  his  execution,  and  he  suffered 
under  it. 

Having  thus  shown  that  this  is  no  prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ.  I 
pass  on  to  the  third  passage  quoted  from  the  Old  Testament  by 
the  New,  as  a  prophecy  of  him. 

This,  like  the  first  I  have  spoken  of,  is  introduced  by  a  dream. 
Joseph  dreameth  another  dream,  and  dreameth  that  he  seeth 
another  angel.  The  account  begins  at  the  13th  v.  of  2d  chap,  ot 
Matthew. 

"  The  angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  to  Joseph  in  a  dream,  say- 
ing. Arise  and  take  the  young  child  and  his  mother  and  flee  into 
Egypt,  and  be  thou  there  vutil  I  bring  thee  word  :  For  Herod  will 


THE    PROPHECIES. 


233 


seek  the  life  of  the  young  child  to  destroy  him.  TMien  he  arose 
he  took  the  young  child  and  his  mother  by  night  and  departed  into 
Egypt — and  was  there  until  the  death  of  Ilerod,  that  it  might  be 
fulfilled  which  was  spoken  of  the  Lord  by  the  prophet,  saying, 
Out  of  Egypt  I  have  called  my  son." 

This  passage  is  in  the  book  of  Ilosea,  chap.  xi.  ver.  1.  The 
words  are,  "  When  Israel  was  a  child  then  I  loved  him  and  called 
my  son  out  of  Egypt — As  they  called  them,  sf»  they  went  from  them, 
they  sacrificed  unto  Baalam  and  burnt  incense  to  graven  images." 

This  passage  falsely  called  a  prophecy  of  Christ,  refers  to  the 
children  of  Israel  coming  out  of  Egypt  in  the  time  of  Pharoah, 
and  to  the  idolatory  they  committed  afterwards.  To  make  it 
apply  to  Jesus  Christ,  he  must  then  be  the  person  who  sacrificed 
unto  Baalam  ami  burnt  incense  to  graven  images,  for  the  person 
called  out  of  Egypt  by  the  collective  name,  Israel,  and  the  per- 
sons committing  this  idolatory,  are  the  same  persons,  or  the 
descendants  from  them.  This,  then,  can  be  no  prophecy  of  Jesus 
Christ,  unless  they  are  willing  to  make  an  idolater  of  him.  I  pass 
on  to  the  fourth  passage,  called,  a  prophecy  by  the  writer  of  the 
book  of  Matthew. 

This  is  introduced  by  a  story,  told  by  nobody  but  himself,  and 
scarcely  believed  by  any  body,  of  the*  slaughter  of  all  the  children 
under  two  years  old,  by  the  command  of  Herod.  A  thing  which 
it  is  not  probable  should  be  done  by  Herod,  as  he  only  held 
an  office  under  the  Roman  government,  to  which  appeals  could 
always  be  had,  as  we  see  in  the  case  of  Paul. 

Matthew,  however,  having  made  or  told  his  story,  says,  chap. 
ii.  V.  17. — "  Then  was  fulfilled  that  which  was  spoken  by  Jere- 
miah, the  prophet,  saying, — In  Ramah  ivas  there  a  voice  heard, 
lamentation,  weeping  and  great  mourning ;  Rachael  lueeping  fo'^ 
her  children,  and  loould  not  he  comforted  because  they  were  not." 

This  passage  is  in  Jeremiah,  chap.  xxxi.  ver.  15,  and  this  verse 
when  separated  from  the  verses  before  and  after  it,  and  which  ex- 
plains its  application,  might,  with  equal  propriety,  be  applied  to 
every  case  of  wars,  sieges,  and  other  violences,  such  as  the 
Christians  themselves  have  often  done  to  the  Jews,  where  mo- 
thers have  lamented  the  loss  of  their  children.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  verse,  taken  singly,  that  designates  or  points  out  any  partieu 
lar  application  of  it,  otherwise  tha«  it  points  to  some  circum- 
stances which,  at  the  time  of  writing  it,  had  already  happeuedi 
30 


234  EXAMINATION    OF 

and  not  to  a  thing  yet  to  happen,  for  the  verse  is  in  the  preter  or 
past  tense.  I  go  to  explain  the  case  and  show  the  apphcaticn 
of the  verse. 

Jeremiah  lived  in  the  time  that  Nebuchadnezzar  besieged,  took, 
plundered,  and  destroyed  Jerusalem,  and  led  the  Jews  captive  to 
Babylon.  He  carried  his"  violence  against  the  Jews  to  every  ex- 
treme. He  slew  the  sons  of  king  Zedekiah  before  his  face,  he 
then  put  out  the  eyes  of  Zedekiah,  and  kept  him  in  prison  till  the 
day  of  his  death. 

It  is  of  this  time  of  sorrow  and  suffering  to  the  Jews  that  Jere- 
miah is  speaking.  Their  temple  was  destroyed,  their  land  deso- 
lated, their  nation  and  government  entirely  broken  up,  and  them- 
selves, men,  women  and  children,  carried  into  captivity.  They 
had  too  many  sorrows  of  their  own,  immediately  before  their  eyes, 
to  permit  them,  or  any  of  their  chiefs,  to  be  employing  themselves 
on  things  that  might,  or  might  not,  happen  in  the  world  seven  hun- 
dred years  afterwards. 

It  is,  as  already  observed,  of  this  time  of  sorrow  and  suffering  to 
the  Jews  that  Jeremiah  is  speaking  in  the  verse  in  question.  In 
the  two  next  verses,  the  16th  and  17th,  he  endeavours  to  console 
the  sufferers  by  giving  them  hopes,  and,  according  to  the  fashion 
of  speaking  in  those  days,  assurances  from  the  Lord,  that  their  suf- 
ferings should  have  an  end.  and  that  their  children  should  return 
a^ain  to  their  own  children.  But  I  leave  the  verses  to  speak  for 
themselves,  and  the  Old  Testament  to  testify  against  the  New. 

Jeremiah,  chap.  xxxi.  ver.  15. — "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  a  voice 
%vas  heard  in  Ramah  (it  is  in  the  preter  tense)  lamentation  and 
bitter  weeping  :  Rachael,  weeping  for  her  children  because  they 
were  not." 

Verse  16. — "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  refrain  thy  voice  from  weep 
ing,  and  thine  eyes  from  tears  ;  for  thy  work  shall  be  rewarded, 
said  the  Lord,  and  they  shall  comt  again  from  the  land  of  th& 
enemy." 

Verse  17. — "  And  there  is  hope  in  thine  end,  saith  the  Lord 
that  thy  children  shall  come  again  to  their  own  border." 

By  what  strange  ignorance  or  imposition  is  it,  that  the  children 
of  which  Jeremiah  speaks,  (meaning  the  people  of  the  Jewish  na- 
tion, scripturally  called  children  of  Israel,  and  not  mere  infants  un- 
der two  years  old,)  and  who  were  to  return  again  from  the  land  of 
the  enemy,  and  come  aj^ain  into  their  own  borders,  can  mean  tho 


THE    PRC/fHECIES.  235 

children  that  Matthew  makes  Herod  to  slaughter  ?  Could  those 
return  again  from  the  land  of  the  enemy,  or  how  can  the  land  of  the 
enemy  be  applied  to  them?  Could  they  come  again  to  their  own 
borders?  Good  heavens  !  How  has  the  world  been  imposed  upon 
by  Testament-makers,  priestcraft,  and  pretended  prophecies.  I 
pass  on  to  the  fifth  passage  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ. 

This,  like  two  of  the  former,  is  introduced  by  dream.  Joseph 
dreamed  another  dream,  and  dreameth  of  another  Angel.  And 
Matthew  is  again  the  historian  of  the  dream  and  the  dreamer.  If 
it  were  asked  how  Matthew  could  know  what  Joseph  dreamed, 
neither  the  Bishop  nor  all  the  Church  could  answer  the  question. 
Perhaps  it  was  Matthew  that  dreamed,  and  not  Joseph  ;  that  is, 
Joseph  dreamed  by  proxy,  in  Matthew's  brain,  as  they  tell  us 
Daniel  dreamed  for  Nebuchadnezzar.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  I  go 
on  with  my  subject. 

The  account  of  this  dream  is  in  Matthew,  chap.  ii.  verse  19. — 
"  But  when  Herod  was  dead,  behold  an  angel  of  the  Lord  appear- 
ed in  a  dream  to  Joseph  in  Egypt — Saying,  arise,  and  take  the 
young  child  and  its  mother  and  go  into  the  land  of  Israel,  for  they 
are  dead  which  sought  the  young  child's  life — and  ho  arose  and 
took  the  young  child  and  his  mother  and  came  into  the  land  of 
Israel.  But  when  he  heard  that  Archelaus  did  reign  in  Judea  in 
the  room  of  his  father  Herod,  he  was  afraid  to  go  thither.  Not- 
withstanding being  warned  of  God  in  a  dream  (here  is  another 
dream)  he  turned  aside  into  the  parts  of  Galilee  ;  and  he  came 
and  dwelt  in  a  city  called  JVazareth,  that  it  might  he  fulfilled  which 
%cas  spoken  hij  the  prophets. — He  shall  he  called  a  JVazarine." 

Here  is  good  circumstantial  evidence,  that  Matthew  dreamed, 
for  there  is  no  such  passage  in  all  the  Old  Testament ;  and  I  in- 
vite the  bishop  and  all  the  priests  in  Christendom,  including  those 
of  America,  to  produce  it.  I  pass  on  to  the  sixth  passage,  called 
a  prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ. 

This,  as  Swift  says  on  another  occasion,  is  lugged  in  head  and 
shoulders  ;  it  need  only  to  be  seen  in  order  to  be  hooted  as  a  forced 
and  far-fetched  piece  of  imposition. 

Matthew,  chap.  iv.  v.  12.  "  Now  when  Jesus  heard  that  John 
was  cast  into  prison,  he  depa'^.ed  into  Galilee — and  leavin^^  Naza- 
reth, he  came  and  dwelt  in  Capernaum,  which  is  upon  the  sea 
coast,  in  the  borders  of  Zebulon  and  Nephthalim— That  it  might 
be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  Esaias  (Isaiah)  the  prophet,  eay- 


236  EXAMINATION  OP 

mg,  The  land  of  Zebulon  and  the  land  of  jyepthalim,  by  the  icay 
of  the  sea,  beyond  Jordan,  in  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles — the  people 
iphich  sat  in  darkness  saw  great  light,  and  to  them  which  sat  in 
the  region  and  shadow  of  death,  light  is  springing  upon  them." 

I  wonder  Matthew  has  not  made  the  cris-cross-row,  or  the  christ- 
cross-row  (I  know  not  how  the  priests  spell  it)  into  a  prophecy. 
He  might  as  well  have  done  this  as  cut  out  these  unconnected 
and  undescriptive  sentences  from  the  place  they  stand  in  and 
dubbed  them  with  that  title. 

The  woids,  however,  are  in  Isaiah,  chap.  ix.  verse  1,  2,  as  fol- 
lows : — 

"  Nevertheless  the  dimness  shall  not  be  such  as  was  in  her  vex- 
ation, when  at  the  first  he  lightly  afflicted  the  land  of  Zebidon 
and  the  land  of  JVephthali,  and  afterwards  did  more  grievously 
afHict  her  by  the  icay  of  the  sea,  beyond  Jordan  in  Galilee  of  the 
nations." 

All  this  relates  to  two  circumstances  that  had  already  happened, 
at  the  time  these  words  in  Isaiah  were  written.  The  one,  where 
the  land  of  Zebulon  and  Nephthali  had  been  lightly  afflicted,  and 
afterwards  more  grievously  by  the  way  of  the  sea. 

But  observe,  reader,  how  Matthew  has  falsified  the  text.  He 
begins  his  quotation  at  a  part  of  the  verse  where  there  is  not  so 
much  as  a  comma,  and  thereby  cuts  off"  every  thing  that  relates 
to  the  first  affliction.  He  then  leaves  out  all  that  relates  to  the 
second  affliction,  and  by  this  means  leaves  out  every  thing  that 
makes  the  verse  intelligible,  and  reduces  it  to  a  senseless  skeleton 
of  names  of  towns. 

To  bring  this  imposition  of  Matthew  clearly  and  immediately 
before  the  eye  of  the  reader,  I  will  repeat  the  verse,  and  put  be- 
tween crotchets  the  words  he  has  left  out,  and  put  in  Italics  those 
he  has  preserved. 

[Nevertheless  the  dimness  shall  not  be  such  as  was  in  her  vex- 
ation when  at  the  first  he  lightly  afflicted]  the  land  of  Zebulon  and 
the  land  of  JVephthali,  [and  did  afterwards  more  grievously  aftiict 
her]  by  the  way  of  the  sea  beyond  Jordan  in  Galilee  of  the  nations. 

What  gross  imposition  is  it  to  gut,  as  the  phrase  is,  a  verse  in 
this  manner,  render  it  perfectly  senseless,  and  then  puff"  it  off  on  a 
credulous  world  as  a  prophecy.     I  proceed  to  the  next  verse. 

Ver.  2.  "  The  people  that  walked  in  darkness  have  seen  a  great 
light  ;  they  that  dwell  in   the  land  of  the  shadow  of  death,  upon 


THE   PROPHECIES.  237 

them  hath  the  hght  shined."  All  this  is  historical,  and  not  in  the 
least  prophetical.  The  whole  is  in  the  preter  tense  :  it  speaks  of 
things  that  had  been  accomplished  at  the  time  the  words  were  writ- 
ten, and  not  of  things  to  be  accomplished  afterwards. 

As  then  the  passage  is  in  no  possible  sense  prophetical,  nor  in- 
tended to  be  so,  and  that  to  attempt  to  make  it  so,  is  not  only  to 
falsify  the  original,  but  to  commit  a  criminal  imposition  ;  it  is  mat- 
ter of  no  concern  to  us,  otherwise  than  as  curiosity,  to  know  who 
the  people  were  of  which  the  passage  speaks,  that  sat  in  darkness, 
and  what  the  light  was  that  shined  in  upon  them. 

If  we  look  into  the  preceding  chapter,  the  Sth,  of  which  the  9th 
is  only  a  continuation,  we  shall  find  the  writer  speaking,  at  the 
19th  verse,  of"  iciiches  and  ivizurds  who  peep  about  and  mutter,^* 
and  of  people  who  made  application  to  them  ;  and  he  preaches  and 
exhorts  them  against  this  darksome  practice.  It  is  of  this  people, 
and  of  this  darksome  practice,  or  ivalking  in  darkness,  that  he  is 
speaking  at  the  2d  verse  of  the  9th  chapter ;  and  with  respect  to 
the  lighl  that  had  shined  in  upon  them,  it  refers  entirely  to  his  own 
ministry,  and  to  the  boldness  of  it,  which  opposed  itself  to  that  oi 
the  tvitches  and  wizards  who  peeped  about  and  muttered. 

Isaiah  is,  upon  the  whole,  a  wild  disorderly  writer,  preserving 
in  general  no  clear  chain  of  perception  in  the  arrangement  of  his 
ideas,  and  consequently  producing  no  defined  conclusions  from 
them.  It  is  the  wildness  of  his  style,  the  confusion  of  his  ideas, 
and  the  ranting  metaphors  he  employs,  that  have  afforded  so  many 
opportunities  to  priestcraft  in  some  cases,  and  to  superstition  in 
others,  to  impose  those  defects  upon  the  world  as  prophecies  ot 
Jesus  Christ.  Finding  no  direct  meaning  in  them,  and  not  know- 
ing what  to  make  of  them,  and  supposing  at  the  same  time  they 
were  intended  to  have  a  meaning,  they  supplied  the  defect  by  in- 
venting a  meaning  of  their  own,  and  called  it  his.  I  have,  how- 
ever, in  this  place  done  Isaiah  the  justice  to  rescue  him  from  the 
claws  of  Matthew,  who  has  torn  him  unmercifully  to  pieces  ;  and 
from  the  imposition  or  ignorance  of  priests  and  commentators,  by 
letting  Isaiah  speak  for  himself. 

If  the  words  ivalking-  in  darkness,  and  light  breaking  in,  could 
m  any  case  be  applied  prophetically,  which  they  cannot  be,  they 
would  better  apply  to  the  times  we  now  live  in  than  to  any  other. 
The  world  has  "  ivalkcd  in  darkness^^  for  eighteen  hundred  years, 
both  as  to  religion  and  government,  and  it  is  only  since  the  Ame- 


238  EXAMINATION  OF 

rican  Revolution  began  that  light  has  broken  in.  The  belief  of 
one  God,  whose  attributes  are  revealed  to  us  in  the  book  or  scrip- 
ture of  the  creation,  which  no  human  hand  can  counterfeit  or  falsi- 
fy, and  not  in  the  written  or  printed  book  which,  as  Matthew  has 
shown,  can  be  altered  or  falsified  by  ignorance  or  design,  is  now 
making  its  Way  among  us  :  and  as  to  government,  the  light  is  al- 
ready gone  forth,  and  whilst  men  ought  to  be  careful  not  to  be 
blinded  by  the  excess  of  it,  as  at  a  certain  time  in  France,  when 
every  thing  was  Robespierean  violence,  they  ought  to  reverence, 
and  even  to  adore  it,  with  all  the  firmness  and  perseverance  that 
true  wisdom  can  inspire. 

I  pass  on  to  the  seventh  passage,  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew,  chap.  viii.  ver.  16.  "  When  the  evening  was  come, 
they  brought  unto  him  (Jesus)  many  that  were  possessed  with 
devils,  and  he  cast  out  the  spirit  with  his  word,  and  healed  all  that 
were  sick. — That  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  Esaias 
(Isaiah)  the  prophet,  saying,  himself  took  our  infirmities,  and  bare 
our  sicknesses. 

This  affair  of  people  being  possessed  by  devils,  and  of  casting 
them  out,  was  the  fable  of  the  day  when  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament  were  written.  It  had  not  existence  at  any  other  time. 
The  books  of  the  old  Testament  mention  no  such  thing  ;  the  peo- 
ple of  the  present  day  know  of  no  such  thing  ;  nor  does  the  histo- 
ry of  any  people  or  country  speak  of  such  a  thing.  It  starts  upon 
us  all  at  once  in  the  book  of  Matthew,  and  is  altogether  an  inven- 
tion of  the  New  Testament-makers  and  the  Christian  church. 
The  book  of  Matthew  is  the  first  book  where  the  Avord  Devil  is 
mentioned.*  We  read  in  some  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment of  things  called  familiar  spirits,  the  supposed  companions  of 
people  called  witches  and  wizards.  It  was  no  other  than  the  trick 
of  pretended  conjurors  to  obtain  money  from  credulous  and  ig- 
norant people,  or  the  fabricated  charge  of  superstitious  malignancy 
against  unfortunate  and  decrepid  old  age. 

But  the  idea  of  a  familar  spirit,  if  we  can  affix  any  idea  to  the 
term,  is  exceedingly  different  to  that  of  being  possessed  by  a 
devil.  In  the  one  case,  the  supposed  familar  spirit  is  a  dexterous 
agent,  that  comes  and  goes  and  does  as  ho  is  bidden ;    in  the 

*  The  word  devil  is  a  personification  of  tne  word  emi. 


THE    PROPHECIES.  239 

other,  he  is  a  turb  ilent  roaring  monster,  that  tears  and  tortures 
the  body  into  convulsions.  Reader,  whoever  thou  art,  put  thy 
trust  in  thy  Creator,  make  use  of  the  reason  he  endowed  thee  with, 
and  cast  from  thee  all  such  fables. 

The  passage  alluded  to  by  Matthew,  for  as  a  quotation  it  is 
false,  is  in  Isaiah,  chap.  liii.  ver,  4,  which  is  as  follows  : 

"  Surely  he  (the  person  of  whom  Isaiah  is  speaking  of)  hath 
borne  our  griefs  and  carried  our  sorrows."  It  is  in  the  preter 
tense. 

Here  is  nothing  about  casting  out  devils,  nor  curing  of  sick- 
nesses. The  passage,  therefore,  so  far  from  being  a  prophecy  of 
Christ,  is  not  even  applicable  as  a  circumstance. 

Isaiah,  or  at  least  the  writer  of  the  book  that  bears  his  name, 
employs  the  whole  of  this  chapter,  the  53d,  in  lamenting  the  suf- 
ferings of  some  deceased  persons,  of  whom  he  speaks  very 
pathetically.  It  is  a  monody  on  the  death  of  a  friend ;  but  he 
mentions  not  the  name  of  the  person,  nor  gives  any  circumstance 
of  him  by  which  he  can  be  personally  known  ;  and  it  is  this  silence, 
which  is  evidence  of  nothing,  that  Matthew  has  laid  hold  of  to 
put  the  name  of  Christ  to  it ;  as  if  the  chiefs  of  the  Jews,  whose 
sorrows  were  then  great,  and  the  times  they  lived  in  big  with  dan- 
ger, were  never  thinking  about  their  own  affairs,  nor  the  fate  of 
their  own  friends,  but  were  continually  running  a  wild-goose  chase 
into  futurity. 

To  make  a  monody  into  a  prophecy  is  an  absurdity.  The  char- 
acters and  circumstances  of  men,  even  in  different  ages  of  the 
world,  are  so  much  alike,  that  what  is  said  of  one  may  with  pro- 
priety be  said  of  many ;  but  this  fitness  does  not  make  the 
passage  into  a  prophecy ;  and  none  but  an  impostor  or  a  bigot 
would  call  it  so. 

Isaiah,  in  deploring  the  hard  fate  and  loss  of  his  friend,  men- 
tions nothing  of  him  but  what  the  human  lot  of  man  is  su])ject  to. 
All  the  cases  he  states  of  him,  his  persecutions,  his  imprisonment, 
his  patience  in  suffering,  and  his  perseverance  in  principle,  are  all 
within  the  line  of  nature  :  they  belong  exclusively  to  none,  and 
may  with  justness  be  said  of  many.  But  if  Jesus  Christ  was  the 
person  the  church  represents  him  to  be,  that  which  would  exclu- 
sively apply  to  him,  must  be  something  that  could  not  apply  to 
any  other  person  ;  something  beyond  the  line  of  nature  ;  some- 
thing beyond  the  lot  of  mortal  man ;  and  there  are    no  such 


240  EXAMINATION    OF 

expressions  in  this  chapter,  nor  any  other  chapter  in  the  Old 
Testament. 

It  is  no  exclusive  description  to  say  of  a  person,  as  is  said  of 
the  person  Isaiah  is  lamenting  in  this  chapter.  He  was  oppressed 
and  he  u-as  afflicted,  yet  he  opened  not  his  mouth ;  he  is  brought 
as  a  Lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a  sheep  before  his  shearers  is 
dumb,  so  he  opened  not  his  mouth."  This  may  be  said  of  thou- 
sands of  persons,  who  have  suffered  oppressions  and  unjust  death 
with  patience,  silence,  and  perfect  resignation. 

Grotius,  whom  the  bishop  esteems  a  most  learned  man,  and 
who  certainly  was  so,  supposes  that  the  person  of  whom  Isaiah  is 
speaking,  is  Jeremiah.  Grotius  is  led  into  this  opinion,  from  the 
agreement  there  is  between  the  description  given  by  Isaiah,  and 
the  case  of  Jeremiah,  as  stated  in  the  book  that  bears  his  name. 
If  Jeremiah  w  as  an  innocent  man,  and  not  a  traitor  in  the  interest 
of  Nebuchadnezzar,  when  Jerusalem  was  besieged  his  case  was 
hard  ;  he  was  accused  by  his  countrymen,  was  persecuted,  op- 
pressed, and  imprisoned,  and  he  says  of  himself,  (see  Jeremiah, 
chap.  ii.  ver.  19,)  "  But  as  for  me,  I  K'rts  like  a  lamb  or  an  ox  that 
is  brought  to  the  slaughter." 

I  should  be  inclined  to  the  same  opinion  with  Grotius,  had 
Isaiah  lived  at  the  time  when  Jeremiah  underwent  the  cruelties  of 
which  he  speaks  ;  but  Isaiah  died  about  fifty  years  before  ;  and  it 
is  of  a  person  of  his  own  time,  whose  case  Isaiah  is  lamenting  in 
the  chapter  in  question,  and  which  imposition  and  bigotry,  more 
than  seven  hundred  years  afterv/ards,  perverted  into  a  prophecy  of 
a  person  they  call  Jesus  Christ. 

I  pass  on  to  the  eighth  passage  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew,  chap,  xii.  ver.  .14.  "  Then  the  Pharisees  went  out 
and  held  a  council  against  him,  how  they  might  destroy  him — But 
when  Jesus  knew  it  he  withdrew  himself;  and  great  numbers  fol- 
lowed him  and  he  healed  them  all — and  he  charged  them  that  they 
should  not  make  him  known  ;  That  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was 
spoken  by  Esaias  (Isaiah)  the  prophet,  saying, 

"  Behold  my  servant  whom  I  have  chosen ;  my  beloved  in 
whom  my  soul  is  well  pleased,  I  will  put  my  spirit  upon  him,  and 
he  shall  show  judgment  to  the  Gentiles — he  shall  not  strive  nor 
cry,  neither  shall  any  man  hear  his  voice  in  the  streets — a  bruised 
reed  shall  he  not  break,  and  smoaking  flax  shall  he  not  quench,  til. 


THE    PROPHECIES.  241 

he  jends  forth  judgment  unto  victory — and  in  his  name  shall  the 
Gentiles  trust." 

In  the  first  place,  this  passage  hath  not  the  least  relation  to 
the  purpose  for  which  it  is  quoted. 

Matthew  says,  that  the  Pharisees  held  a  council  against  Jesus 
to  destroy  him — that  Jesus  withdrew  himself — that  great  numbers 
followed  him — that  he  healed  them — and  that  he  charged  them 
they  should  not  make  him  known. 

But  the  passage  Matthew  has  quoted  as  being  fulfilled  by  these 
circumstances,  does  not  so  much  as  apply  to  any  one  of  them.  It 
has  nothing  to  do  with  the  Pharisees  holding  a  council  to  destroy 
Jesus — with  his  withdrawing  himself — with  great  numbers  follow- 
ing him — with  his  healing  them — nor  with  his  charging  them  not 
to  make  him  known. 

The  purpose  for  which  the  passage  is  quoted,  and  the  passage 
itself,  are  as  remote  from  each  other,  as  nothing  from  something. 
But  the  case  is,  that  people  have  been  so  long  in  the  habit  of 
reading  the  books,  called  the  Bible  and  Testament,  with  their 
eyes  shut,  and  their  senses  locked  up,  that  the  most  stupid  incon- 
sistencies have  passed  on  them  for  truth,  and  imposition  for  pro 
phecy.  The  all-wise  Creator  has  been  dishonoured  by  be- 
ing made  the  author  of  fable,  ana  the  human  mind  degraded  by 
believing  it. 

In  this  passage  as  in  that  last  mentioned,  the  name  of  the  per- 
son of  whom  the  passage  speaks  is  not  given,  and  we  are  left  in 
the  dark  respecting  him.  It  is  this  defect  in  the  history,  that 
bigotry  and  imposition  have  laid  hold  of,  to  call  it  prophecy. 

Had  Isaiah  lived  in  the  time  of  Cyrus,  the  passage  would 
descriptively  apply  to  him.  As  king  of  Persia,  his  authority  was 
great  among  the  Gentiles,  and  it  is  of  such  a  character  the  pas- 
sage speaks  ;  and  his  friendship  for  the  Jews  whom  he  liberated 
from  captivity,  and  who  might  then  be  compared  to  a  bruised 
-.-eed,  was  extensive.  •  But  this  description  does  not  apply  to 
Jesus  Christ,  who  had  no  authority  among  the  Gentiles  ;  and  as 
to  his  own  countrymen,  figuratively  described  by  the  bruised 
reed,  it  was  they  who  crucified  him.  Neither  can  it  be  said  of 
him  that  he  did  not  cry,  and  that  his  voice  was  not  heard  in  the 
street.  As  a  preacher  it  was  his  business  to  be  heard,  and  we 
are  told  that  he  travelled  about  the  country  for  that  purpose. 
Matthew  has  given  a  long  sermon,  which  (if  his  authority  is  good^ 
31 


242  EXAMINATION    OF 

but  which  is  much  to  be  doubted  since  he  imposes  so  much,) 
Jesus  preached  to  a  multitude  upon  a  mountain,  and  it  would  be 
a  quibble  to  say  that  a  mountain  is  not  a  street,  since  it  is  a  place 
equally  as  public. 

The  last  verse  in  the  passage  (the  4th)  as  it  stands  in  Isaiah, 
and  which  Matthew  has  not  quoted,  says,  "  He  shall  not  fail  nor 
be  discouraged  till  he  have  set  judgment  in  the  earth  and  the  isles 
shall  wait  for  his  law."  This  also  applies  to  Cyrus.  He  was  not 
discouraged,  he  did  not  fail,  he  conquered  all  Babylon,  liberated 
the  Jews,  and  established  laws.  But  this  cannot  be  said  of  Jesus 
Christ,  wlio  in  the  passage  before  us,  according  to  Matthew,  with- 
drew himself  for  fear  of  the  Pharisees,  and  charged  the  people 
that  followed  him  not  to  make  it  known  where  he  was  ;  and  who, 
according  to  other  parts  of  the  Testament,  was  continually  mov- 
ing from  place  to  place  to  avoid  being  apprehended.* 


*  In  the  second  part  of  the  .Sge  of  Reason,  I  have  shown  that  the  book  as- 
cribed to  Isaiah  is  not  only  miscellaneous  as  to  matter,  but  as  to  autliorsliip ; 
that  there  are  parts  in  it  which  could  not  be  written  by  Isaiah,  because  they 
speak  of  things  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  he  was  dead.  The  instance 
I  have  given  of  this,  in  that  work,  corresponds  with  the  subject  I  am  upon,  at 
least  a  tittle  better  than  J\Iatthew^s  introduction  and  his  quotation. 

Isaiah  lived,  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  in  the  time  of  Hezekiah,  and  it  was 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  from  the  death  of  Hezekiah  to  the  first  year 
of  the  reign  of  Cyrus,  when  Cyrus  published  a  proclamation,  which  is  given  in 
the  first  chapter  of  the  Ijook  of  Ezra,  for  the  return  of  the  Jews  to  Jerusalem. 
It  cannot  be  doulDted,  at  least  it  ought  not  to  be  doubted,  that  the  Jews  would 
feel  an  affectionate  gratitude  for  this  act  of  benevolent  Justice,  and  it  is  natural 
they  would  express  that  gratitude  in  the  customary  style,  bombastical  and  hy- 
perbolical  as  it  was,  which  they  used  on  extraordinary  occasions,  and  which 
was,  and  still  is  in  practice  with  all  the  eastern  nations. 

The  instance  to  which  I  refer,  and  which  is  given  in  the  second  part  of  the 
Age  of  Reason,  is  the  last  verse  of  the  44th  chapter,  and  the  beginning  of  the 
45th — in  these  words:  "  That  sailh  of  Cyrus,  he  is  my  shepherd  dnd  shall  per- 
form all  my  pleasure :  ei^en  saying  to  Jenisalem  thou  shall  be  huilt,  and  to  the 
Temple,  thy  foundation  shall  be  laid.  Thus  sailh  the  Lord  to  his  anointed,  to 
Cyrus,  whose  right  hand  I  have  holden  to  subdue  nations  before  him;  andlioill 
loose  the  loins  of  kings,  to  open  before  him  the  two-leaved  gates,  and  the  gates 
shall  not  be  shut." 

This  complementary  address  is  in  the  present  tense,  which  shows  that  the 
things  of  which  it  speaks  were  in  existence  at  the  time  of  writing  it ;  and  con- 
sequently that  the  author  must  have  been  at  least  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
later  than  Isaiah,  and  that  the  book  which  bears  his  name  is  a  compilation. 
The  Proverbs  called  Solomon's,  and  the  Psalms  called  David's,  are  of  the  same 
kind.  The  two  last  verses  of  the  second  book  of  Chronicles,  and  the  three  first 
verses  of  the  first  chapter  of  Ezra,  are  word  for  word  the  same  ;  which  show 
that  the  compilers  of  the  Bible  mixed  the  writings  of  different  authors  toge- 
ther, and  put  them  under  some  common  head. 

As  we  have  here  an  instance  in  the  44th  and  45th  chapters  of  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  name  of  Cyrus  into  a  book  to  which  it  cannot  belong,  it  affords  good 
ground  to  conclude,  that  the  passage  in  the  42d  chapter,  in  which  the  character 
of  Cyrus  is  given  without  his  name,  has  been  introduced  in  like  manner,  eind 
that  tho  i.»erson  there  spoken  of  is  Cyrus. 


THE    PROPHECIES.  243 

But  it  is  immaterial  to  us,  at  this  distance  of  time,  to  know 
who  the  pel  son  was  :  it  is  sufficient  to  the  purpose  I  am  upon, 
that  of  detecting  fraud  and  falsehood,  to  know  who  it  was  not, 
and  to  show  it  was  not  the  person  called  Jesus  Chris*. 

I  pass  on  to  the  ninth  passage  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew,  chap.  xxi.  v.  1.  "  And  when  they  drew  nigh  unto 
Jerusalem,  and  were  come  to  Bethpage,  unto  the  mount  of  Olives, 
then  Jesus  sent  two  of  his  disciples,  saying  unto  them,  go  into  the 
village  over  against  you,  and  straightway  ye  shall  find  an  ass  tied, 
and  a  colt  with  her,  loose  them  and  bring  them  unto  me — and  if 
any  man  say  ought  to  you,  ye  shall  say,  the  Lord  hath  need  of 
them,  and  straitway  he  will  send  them. 

"  All  this  was  done  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken 
by  the  prophet,  saying.  Tell  ye  the  daughter  of  Sion,  behold  thy 
Icing  Cometh  unto  thee,  meek,  and  sitting  tipon  an  ass,  and  a  colt 
the  foal  of  an  ass.^' 

Poor  ass !  let  it  be  some  consolation  amidst  all  thy  sufferings, 
that  if  the  heathen  world  erected  a  bear  into  a  constellation,  the 
Christian  world  has  elevated  thee  into  a  prophecy. 

This  passage  is  in  Zechariah,  chap.  ix.  ver  9,  and  is  one  of  the 
whims  of  friend  Zechariah  to  congratulate  his  countrymen,  who 
were  then  returning  from  captivity  in  Babylon,  and  himself  with 
them,  to  Jerusalem.  It  has  no  concern  with  any  other  subject. 
It  IS  strange  that  apostles,  priests,  and  commentators,  never  per- 
mit, or  never  suppose,  the  Jews  to  be  speaking  of  their  own 
aflfairs.  Every  thing  in  the  Jewish  books  is  perverted  and  dis- 
torted into  meanings  never  intended  by  the  writers.  Even  the 
poor  ass  must  not  be  a  Jew-ass  but  a  Christian-ass.  I  wonder 
they  did  not  make  an  apostle  of  him,  or  a  bishop,  or  at  least  make 
him  speak  and  prophecy.  He  could  have  lifted  up  his  voice  as 
loud  as  any  of  them. 

Zechariah,  in  the  first  chapter  of  his  book,  indulges  himself  in 
several  whims  on  the  joy  of  getting  back  to  Jerusalem.  He 
says  at  the  8th  verse,  "  I  saw  by  night  (Zechariah  was  a  sharp- 
sighted  seer)  and  behold  a  man  setting  on  a  red  liorse,  (yes, 
reader,  a  red  horse,)  and  he  stood  among  the  myrtle  trees  that  were 
in  the  bottom,  and  behind  him  were  red  horses  speckled  and  white.^ 
He  says  nothing  about  green  horses,  nor  blue  horses,  perhaps  be- 
cause it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  green  from  blue  by  night,  but  a 


244  EXAMINATION  OF 

Christian  can  have  no  doubt  they  were  there,  because  ^'^  faith  ii 
the  evidence  of  things  not  seen." 

Zechariah  then  introduces  an  angel  among  his  horses,  but  he 
does  not  tell  us  what  colour  the  angel  was  of,  whether  black  or 
white,  nor  whether  he  came  to  buy  horses,  or  only  to  look  at  them 
as  curiosities,  for  certainly  they  were  of  that  kind.  Be  this  how 
ever  as  it  may,  he  enters  into  conversation  with  this  angel,  on  the 
joyful  affair  of  getting  back  to  Jerusalem,  and  he  saith  at  the  16th 
verse,  "  Therefore,  thus  saith  the  Lord,  /  am  returned  to  Jerusa- 
lem with  mercies  ;  my  house  shall  be  built  in  it  saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts,  and  a  line  shall  be  stretched  forth  upon  Jerusalem.  "  An 
expression  signifying  the  rebuilding  the  city. 

All  this,  whimsical  and  imaginary  as  it  is,  suflaciently  proves  that 
it  was  the  entry  of  the  Jews  into  Jerusalem  from  captivity,  and 
not  the  entry  of  Jesus  Christ,  seven  hundred  years  afterwards, 
that  is  the  subject  upon  which  Zechariah  is  always  speaking. 

As  to  the  expression  of  riding  upon  an  ass,  which  commentators 
represent  as  a  sign  of  humility  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  case  is,  he  ne- 
ver was  so  well  mounted  before.  The  asses  of  those  countries 
are  large  and  well-proportioned,  and  were  anciently  the  chief  of 
riding  animals.  Their  beasts  of  burden,  and  which  served  also 
for  the  conveyance  of  the  poor,  were  camels  and  dromedaries. 
We  read  in  judges,  chap.  x.  ver.  4,  that  "  Jair,  (one  of  the  Judges 
of  Israel,)  had  thirty  sons  that  rode  on  thirty  ass-colts,  and  they 
had  thirty  cities."     But  commentators  distort  every  thing. 

There  is  besides  very  reasonable  grounds  to  conclude  that  this 
story  of  Jesus  riding  publicly  into  Jerusalem,  accompanied,  as  it 
is  said  at  the  8th  and  9th  verses,  by  a  great  multitude,  shouting 
and  rejoicing,  and  spreading  their  garments  by  the  way,  is  altoge- 
ther a  story  destitute  of  truth. 

In  the  last  passage  called  a  prophecy  that  I  examined,  Jesus  is 
represented  as  withdrawing,  that  is,  running  away,  and  concealing 
himself  for  fear  of  being  apprehended,  and  charging  the  people 
that  were  with  him  not  to  make  him  known.  No  new  circum- 
stance had  arisen  in  the  interim  to  change  his  condition  for  the 
better ;  yet  here  he  is  represented  as  making  his  public  entry  into 
the  same  city  from  which  he  had  fled  for  safety.  The  two  cases 
contradict  each  other  so  much,  that  if  both  are  not  false,  one  of 
them  at  least  can  scarcely  be  true.  For  my  own  part,  I  do  not 
believf,  there  is  one  word  of  historical  truth  in  the  whole  book 


THE    PnoPHECIES.  245 

I  look  upon  it  at  best  to  be  a  romance  :  the  principal  personage  of 
which  is  an  imaginary  or  allegorical  character  founded  upon  some 
tale,  and  in  which  the  moral  is  in  many  parts  good,  and  the  narra- 
tive part  very  badly  and  blunderingly  written. 

I  pass  on  to  the  tenth  passage,  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew,  chap.  xxvi.  ver.  51.  "  And  behold  one  of  them  which 
was  with  Jesus  (meaning  Peter)  stretched  out  his  hand,  and  drew 
his  sword,  and  struck  a  servant  of  the  high  priest,  and  smote  off 
his  ear.  Then  said  Jesus  unto  him  ;  Put  up  again  thy  sword  into 
its  place,  for  all  they  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  with  the 
sword.  Thinkest  thou  that  I  cannot  now  pray  to  my  Father,  and 
he  shall  presently  give  me  more  than  twelve  legions  of  angels. 
But  how  then  shall  the  scriptures  be  fulfilled  that  thus  it  must  be. 
In  that  same  hour  Jesus  said  to  the  multitudes,  are  ye  come  out 
as  against  a  thief,  with  swords  and  with  staves  for  to  take  me  1  I 
sat  daily  with  you  teaching  ixi  the  temple,  and  ye  laid  no  liold  on 
me.  But  all  this  was  done  that  the  scriptures  of  the  prophets 
might  be  fulfilled. 

This  loose  and  general  manner  of  speaking,  admits  neither  of 
detection  nor  of  proof.  Here  is  no  quotation  given,  nor  the  name 
of  any  Bible  author  mentioned,  to  which  reference  can  be  had. 

There  are,  however,  some  high  improbabilities  against  the  truth 
of  the  account. 

First — It  is  not  probable  that  the  Jews,  who  were  tnen  a  con- 
quered people,  and  under  subjection  to  the  Romans,  should  be 
permitted  to  wear  swords. 

Secondly — If  Peter  had  attacked  the  servant  of  the  high  priest 
and  cut  off  his  ear,  he  would  have  been  immediately  taken  up  by 
the  guard  that  took  up  his  master  and  sent  to  prison  with  him. 

Thirdly — "What  sort  of  disciples  and  preaching  apostles  must 
those  of  Christ  have  been  that  wore  swords  1 

Fourthly — This  scene  is  represented  to  have  taken  place  the 
same  evening  of  what  is  called  the  Lord's  supper,,which  makes, 
according  to  the  ceremony  of  it,  the  inconsistency  of  wearing 
swords  the  greater. 

I  pass  on  to  the  eleventh  passage  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew,  chap,  xxvii.  ver.  3.  "  Then  Judas,  which  had  be- 
trayed him,  when  he  saw  that  he  was  condemned,  repented  him- 


246  EXAMINATION    OF 

self,  and  brought  again  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  to  the  chief 
p-"ests  and  elders,  saying,  I  have  sinned  in  that  I  have  betrayed 
the  innocent  blood.  And  they  said,  what  is  that  to  us,  see  thou  to 
that.  And  he  cast  down  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  and  departed, 
and  went  and  hanged  himself — And  the  chief  priests  took  the  sil 
ver  pieces  and  said,  it  is  not  lawful  to  put  them  in  the  treasury, 
because  it  is  the  price  of  blood — And  they  took  counsel  and 
bought  with  them  the  potter's  field  to  bury  strangers  in — Where- 
fore that  field  is  called  the  field  of  blood  unto  this  day.  Then 
was  fulfilled  that  which  was  spoken  by  Jeremiah  the  prophet,  say- 
ing. And  they  took  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  the  price  of  him 
that  was  valued,  whom  they  of  the  children  of  Israel  did  value, 
and  gave  them  for  the  potter's  field,  as  the  Lord  appointed  me." 

This  is  a  most  barefaced  piece  of  imposition.  The  passage 
in  Jeremiah  which  speaks  of  the  purchase  of  a  field,  has  no  more 
to  do  with  the  case  to  which  Matthew  applies  it,  than  it  has  to  do 
■with  the  purchase  of  lands  in  America.  I  will  recite  the  whole 
passage  : 

Jeremiah,  chap,  xxxii,  v.  6.  "  And  Jeremiah  said,  the  word 
of  the  Lord  came  unto  me,  saying — Behold  Hanamiel,  the  son  of 
Shallum  thine  uncle,  shall  come  unto  thee,  saying,  buy  thee  my 
field  that  is  in  Anathoth,  for  the  right  of  redemption  is  thine  to 
buy  it — So  Hanamiel  mine  uncle's  son  came  to  me  in  the  court  of 
the  prison,  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  said  unto  me, 
buy  my  field  I  pray  thee  that  is  in  Anathoth,  which  is  in  the  coun- 
try of  Benjamin,  for  the  right  of  inheritance  is  thine,  and  the  re- 
demption is  thine  ;  buy  it  for  thyself.  Then  I  knew  this  was  the 
■word  of  the  Lord — And  I  bought  the  field  of  Hanamiel  mine 
uncle's  son,  that  was  in  Anathoth,  and  weighed  him  the  money, 
even  seventeen  shekels  of  silver — and  I  subscribed  the  evidence 
and  sealed  it,  and  took  witnesses  and  weighed  him  the  money  in 
balances.  So  I  took  the  evidence  of  the  purchase,  both  that 
which  was  sealed  according  to  the  law  and  custom,  and  that  whic'i 
was  open — and  I  gave  the  evidence  of  the  purchase  unto  Baruch, 
the  son  of  Neriah,  the  son  of  Maasaeiath,  in  the  sight  of  Hanamiel 
mine  uncle's  son,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  witnesses  that  sub- 
scribed, before  all  the  Jews  that  sat  in  the  court  of  the  prison — 
and  I  charged  Baruch  before  them,  saying.  Thus  saith  the  Lord 
of  hosts,  the  God  of  Israel,  Take  these  evidences,  this  evidence 
of  the  purchase  both  which  is  sealed,  and  tliis  evidence  which  is 


THE    PROPHECIES.  247 

open,  and  put  them  in  an  earthen  vessel,  that  they  may  coi.tinue 
many  days — for  thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  the  God  of  Israel, 
houses,  and  fields,  and  vineyards,  shall  be  possessed  again  in  this 
land." 

I  forbear  making  any  remark  on  this  abominable  imposition  of 
Matthew.  The  thing  glaringly  speaks  for  itself.  It  is  priests 
and  commentators  that  I  rather  ought  to  censure,  for  having 
preached  falsehood  so  long,  and  kept  people  in  darkness  with  re- 
spect to  those  impositions.  I  am  not  contending  with  these  men 
upon  points  of  doctrine,  for  I  know  that  sophistry  has  always  a  city 
of  refuge.  I  am  speaking  of  facts  :  for  wherever  the  thing  called  a 
fact  is  a  falsehood,  the  faith  founded  upon  it  is  delusion,  and  the 
doctrine  raised  upon  it  not  true.  Ah,  reader,  put  thy  trust  in  thy 
Creator,  and  thou  wilt  be  safe  !  but  if  thou  trustest  to  the  book 
called  the  scriptures,  thou  trustest  to  the  rotten  staff  of  fable  and 
falsehood.     But  I  return  to  my  subject. 

There  is  among  the  whims  and  reveries  of  Zechariah,  mention 
made  of  thirty  pieces  of  silver  given  to  a  potter.  They  can 
hardly  have  been  so  stupid  as  to  mistake  a  potter  for  a  field  :  and 
if  they  had,  the  passage  in  Zechariah  has  no  more  to  do  with 
Jesus,  Judas,  and  the  field  to  bury  strangers  in,  than  that  already 
quoted.     I  will  recite  the  passage. 

Zechariah,  chap.  xi.  ver.  7.  "  And  I  will  feed  the  flock  of 
slaughter,  even  you,  0  poor  of  the  flock  ;  and  I  took  unto  me  two 
staves  ;  the  one  I  called  Beavtij,  and  the  other  I  called  Bitnch;  and 
I  fed  the  flock — Three  shepherds  also,  I  cut  oft'  in  one  month  ; 
and  my  soul  loathed  them,  and  their  soul  also  abhorred  me. — Then 
said  I,  I  will  not  feed  you  ;  that  which  dieth,  let  it  die  ;  and  that 
which  is  to  be  cut  off,  let  it  be  cut  off;  and  let  the  rest  eat  every 
one  the  flesh  of  another. — And  I  took  my  staff,  even  Benidij,  and 
cut  it  asunder,  that  I  might  break  my  covenant  which  I  had  made 
with  all  the  people. — And  it  was  broken  in  that  day  ;  and  so  the 
poor  of  the  flock  who  waited  upon  me,  knew  that  it  was  the  word 
of  the  Lord. 

"  And  I  said  unto  them,  if  ye  think  good  give  me  my  price,  and 
if  not,  forbear.  So  they  weighed  for  my  price  thirty  pieces  of  sil- 
ver. And  the  Lord  said  unto  me,  cast  it  unto  the  potter,  a  goodly 
price  that  I  was  prized  at  of  them  ;  and  I  took  the  thirty  pieces  of 
silver  and  cast  them  to  the  potter  in  the  house  of  the  Lord. 


248  EXAMINATION  OP 

"  When  I  cut  asunder  mine  other  stafT,  even  Bands,  that  I 
might  break  the  brotherhood  between  Judah  and  Israel."* 

There  is  no  making  either  head  or  tail  of  this  incoherent  gib- 
berish. His  two  staves,  one  called  Beauty  and  the  other  Bands^ 
is  so  much  like  a  fairy  tale,  that  I  doubt  if  it  had  any  other  origin. 
— There  is,  however,  no  part  that  has  the  least  relation  to  the  case 
stated  in  Matthew  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  reverse  of  it.  Here 
the  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  whatever  it  was  for,  is  called  a  goodly 
price,  it  was  as  much  as  the  thing  was  worth,  and  according  to  the 
language  of  the  day,  was  approved  of  by  the  Lord,  and  the  money 
given  to  the  potter  in  the  house  of  the  Lord.  In  the  case  of  Jesus 
and  Judas,  as  stated  in  Matthew,  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  were 
the  price  of  blood  ;  the  transaction  was  condemned  by  the  Lord, 
and  the  money  when  refunded,  was  refused  admittance  into  the 
Treasury.  Every  thing  in  the  two  cases  is  the  reverse  of  each 
other. 

Besides  this,  a  very  different  and  direct  contrary  account  to  that 
of  Matthew,  is  given  of  the  affair  of  Judas,  in  the  book  called  the 
Acts  of  the  Aposllcs  ;  according  to  that  book,  the  case  is,  that  so 
far  from  Judas  repenting  and  returning  the  money,  and  the  high 
priest  buying  a  field  with  it  to  bury  strangers  in,  Judas   kept  the 

*  Whiston,  in  his  Essay  on  the  Old  Testament,  says,  that  the  passage  of 
Zechariah  of  which  I  have  spoken,  was  in  the  copies  of  the  Bible  of  the  first 
century,  in  the  bonk  of  Jeremiah,  from  whence,  says  he,  it  was  taken  and  in- 
serted without  coherence,  in  that  of  Zechariah — well,  let  it  be  so,  it  does  not 
make  the  fcase  a  whit  the  better  for  the  New  Testament  ;  but  it  makes  the 
case  a  great  deal  the  worse  for  the  Old.  Because  it  shows,  as  I  have  mentioned 
respecting  some  passages  in  a  book  ascribed  to  Isaiah,  that  the  works  of  different 
authors  have  been  so  mixed  and  confounded  together,  they  cannot  now  be  dis- 
criminated, except  where  they  are  historical,  chronological,  or  biographical,  as 
in  the  interpolation  in  Isaiah.  It  is  the  name  of  Cyrus  inserted  where  it  could  not 
be  inserted,  as  he  was  not  in  existence  till  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the 
time  of  Isaiah,  that  detects  the  interpolation  and  the  blunder  with  it. 

Whiston  was  a  man  of  great  literary  learning,  and  what  is  of  mucli  higher 
degree,  of  deep  scientific  learning.  He  was  on'e  of  the  best  and  most  celebra- 
ted mathematicians  of  his  time,  for  which  he  was  made  professor  of  mathema- 
tics of  the  University  of  Cambridge.  He  wrote  so  much  in  defence  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  of  what  he  calls  prophecies  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  at  last  he  be- 
gan to  suspect  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures,  and  wrote  against  them  ;  for  it  is  only 
those  who  examine  them,  that  see  the  imposition.  Those  who  beheve  them 
most,  are  those  who  know  least  about  them. 

Whiston,  after  writing  so  much  in  defence  of  the  Scriptures,  was  at  last  pro- 
secuted for  writing  against  them.  It  was  this  that  gave  occasion  to  Swift,  in  his 
ludicrous  epigram  on  Ditton  and  Whiston,  each  of  which  set  up  to  find  out  the 
longitude,  to  call  the  one  good  master  Ditton  and  the  other,  wicked  Will  Wliis- 
ton.  But  as  Swift  was  a  great  associate  with  the  Freethinkers  of  those  days, 
such  as  Bolingbroke,  Pope,  and  others,  who  did  not  believe  the  book  called  tlie 
scriptures,  there  is  no  certainty  whether  he  wittily  called  him  wicked  for  defend- 
ing the  scriptures,  or  for  writing  against  them.  The  known  character  of  Swift 
decides  ft  r  the  former. 


THE    PROPHECIES  249 

money  and  bought  a  field  with  it  for  himself;  and  instead  of  hang- 
ing himself,  as  Matthews  says,  he  fell  headlong  and  burst  asunder 
—  some  commentators  endeavour  to  get  over  one  part  of  the  con- 
tradiction by  ridiculously  supposing  that  Judas  hanged  himself 
first  and  the  rope  broke. 

Acts,  chap.  i.  ver.  16.  "  Men  and  brethren,  this  scripture 
must  needs  have  been  fulfilled  which  the  Holy  Ghost  by  the 
mouth  of  David  spake  before  concerning  Judas,  which  was  a  guide 
to  them  that  took  Jesus.  (Duvid  says  not  a  word  about  Judas,)  ver. 
17,  for  he  (Judas)  was  numbered  among  us  and  obtained  part  of 
our  ministry." 

Ver.  18.  "  Kow  this  man  imrchased  a  field  icith  the  reward  of 
iniquity,  and  falling  headlong,  he  bluest  asunder  in  the  midst,  and 
his  boivels  gushed  outy  Is  it  not  a  species  of  blasphemy  to  call 
the  New  Testament  revealed  religion,  when  we  see  in  it  such  con- 
tradictions and  absurdities. 

I  pass  on  to  the  twelfth  passage  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew,  chap,  xxvii.  ver.  35.  "  And  they  crucified  him,  and 
parted  his  garments,  casting  lots  ;  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which 
was  spoken  by  the  prophet,  Theij  parted  my  garments  among 
them,  and  upon  my  vesture  did  they  cast  lots."  This  expression 
is  in  the  22d  Psalm,  ver.  18.  The  writer  of  that  Psalm  (whoever 
he  was,  for  the  Psalms  are  a  collection  and  not  the  work  of  one 
man)  is  speaking  of  himself  and  his  own  case,  and  not  that  of  ano- 
ther. He  begins  this  Psalm  with  the  words  which  the  New  Tes- 
tament writers  ascribed  to  Jesus  Christ.  "  My  God,  my  God, 
why  hast  thou  forsaken  me" — words  which  might  be  uttered  by  a 
complaining  man  without  any  great  impropriety,  but  very  impro- 
perly from  the  mouth  of  a  reputed  God. 

The  picture  which  the  writer  draws  of  his  own  situation  in  this 
Psalm,  is  gloomy  enough.  He  is  not  prophecying,  but  complain- 
ing of  his  own  hard  case.  He  represents  himself  as  surrounded 
by  enemies,  and  beset  by  persecutions  of  every  kind  ;  and  by  way 
of  showing  tho  inveteracy  of  his  persecutors,  he  says,  at  the  18th 
verse,  "  They  parted  my  garments  among  them,  and  cast  lots  upon 
my  vesture."  The  expression  is  in  the  present  tense  ;  and  is  the 
same  as  to  say,  they  pursue  me  even  to  the  clothes  upon  my  back, 
and  dispute  how  they  shall  divide  them  ;  besides,  the  word  vesture 
does  not  always  mean  clothing  of  any  kind,  but  property,  or  rather 
32 


250  EXAMINATION    OF 

the  admitting  a  man  to,  or  investing  him  with  property  ;  and  as  it 
is  used  in  this  Psalm  distinct  from  the  word  garment,  it  appears  to 
be  used  in  this  sense.  But  Jesus  had  no  property  ;  for  they  make 
him  say  of  himself,  "  The  foxes  have  holes  and  the  birds  of  the  air 
have  nests,  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head.^^ 

But  be  this  as  it  may,  if  we  permit  ourselves  to  suppose  the  Al- 
mighty would  condescend  to  tell",  by  what  is  called  the  spirit  of 
prophecy,  what  could  come  to  pass  in  some  future  age  of  the  world, 
it  is  an  injury  to  our  own  faculties,  and  to  our  ideas  of  his  great- 
ness, to  imagine  that  it  would  be  about  an  old  coat,  or  an  old  pair  of 
breeches,  or  about  any  thing  which  the  common  accidents  of  life, 
or  the  quarrels  that  attend  it,  exhibit  every  day. 

That  which  is  in  the  power  of  man  to  do,  or  in  his  will  not  to 
do,  is  not  a  subject  foi  prophecy,  even  if  there  were  such  a  thing, 
because  it  cannot  carry  with  it  any  evidence  of  divine  power,  or 
divine  interposition  :  The  ways  of  God  are  not  the  ways  of  men. 
That  which  an  almighty  power  performs,  or  wills,  is  not  within  the 
circle  of  human  power  to  do,  or  to  controul.  But  any  executioner 
and  his  assistants  might  quarrel  about  dividing  the  garments  of  a 
sufferer,  or  divide  them  without  quarelling,  and  by  that  means  ful- 
fil the  thing  called  a  prophecy  or  set  it  aside. 

In  the  passage  before  examined,  I  have  exposed  the  falsehood 
of  them.  In  this  I  exhibit  its  degrading  meanness,  as  an  insult  to 
the  Creator  and  an  injury  to  human  reason. 

Here  end  the  passages  called  prophecies  by  Matthew. 

Matthew  concludes  his  book  by  saying,  that  when  Christ  expired 
on  the  cross,  the  rocks  rent,  the  graves  opened,  and  the  bodies  of 
many  of  the  saints  arose  ;  and  Mark  says,  there  was  darkness 
over  the  land  from  the  sixth  hour  until  the  ninth.  They  produce 
no  prophecy  for  this  ;  but  had  these  things  been  facts,  they  would 
have  been  a  proper  subject  for  prophecy,  because  none  but  an 
almighty  power  could  have  inspired  a  fore-knowledge  of  them, 
and  afterwards  fulfilled  them.  Since  then  there  is  no  such  prophe- 
cy, but  a  pretended  prophecy  of  an  old  coat,  the  proper  deduction 
is,  there  were  no  such  things,  and  that  the  book  of  Matthew  is 
fable  and  falsehood. 

I  pass  on  to  the  book  called  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  Mark 


THE    PROPHECIES.  261 


THE  BOOK  OF  MARK. 

There  are  but  few  passages  in  Mark  called  prophecies  ;  and 
but  few  in  Luke  and  John.  Such  as  there  are  I  shall  examine, 
and  also  such  other  passages  as  interfere  with  those  cited  by  Mat 
thew. 

Mark  begins  his  book  by  a  passage  which  he  puts  in  the  shape 
of  a  prophecy.  Mark,  chap.  1,  verse  1. — "  The  beginning  of  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God — As  it  is  written  in  the 
prophets,  Behold  I  send  my  messenger  before  thy  face,  ivhich  shall 
prepare  the  way  before  thee."  Malachi,  chap,  iii,  verse  1.  The 
passage  in  the  original  is  in  the  first  person.  Mark  makes  this 
passage  to  be  a  prophecy  of  John  the  Baptist,  said  by  the  Church 
to  be  a  forerunner  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  if  we  attend  to  the  verses 
that  follow  this  expression,  as  it  stands  in  Malachi,  and  to  the  first 
and  fifth  verses  of  the  next  chapter,  we  shall  see  that  this  applica- 
tion of  it  is  erroneous  and  false. 

Malachi  having  said,  at  the  first  verse,  "  Behold  I  will  send  my 
messenger,  and  he  shall  prepare  the  way  before  me,"  says,  at  the 
second  verse,  "  But  who  may  abide  the  day  of  his  coming  1  and 
who  shall  stand  when  he  appeareth  1  for  he  is  like  a  refiner's  fire, 
and  like  fuller's  soap." 

This  description  can  have  no  reference  to  the  birth  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  consequently  none  to  John  the  Baptist.  It  is  a  scene 
of  fear  and  terror  that  is  here  described,  and  the  birth  of  Christ  is 
always  spoken  of  as  a  time  of  joy  and  glad  tidings. 

Malachi,  continuing  to  speak  on  the  same  subject,  explains  in 
the  next  chapter  what  the  scene  is  of  which  he  speaks  in  the 
verses  above  quoted,  and  whom  the  person  is  whom  he  calls  the 
messenger. 

"  Behold,"  says  he,  chap.  iv.  verse  1,  "  the  day  cometh  that  shall 
Durn  like  an  oven,  and  all  the  proud,  yea,  and  all  that  do  wickedly, 
shall  be  stubble ;  and  the  day  cometh  that  shall  burn  them  up, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  that  it  shall  leave  them  neither  root  nor 
branch." 

V'erse  5.  "  Behold  I  will  send  you  Elijah  the  prophet  before 
the  coming  of  the  great  and  dreadful  day  of  the  Lord." 

By  what  right,  or  by  what  imposition  or  ignorance  Mark  has 
made  Elijah  into  John  the  Baptist,  and  Malachi's  description  of 


252  EXAMINATION    OP 

the  day  of  judgment  into  the  birth  day  of  Christ,  I  leave  to  the 
Bishop  to  settle. 

Mark,  in  the  second  and  third  verses  of  his  first  chapter,  con- 
founds two  passages  together,  taken  from  different  books  of  the 
Old  Testament.  The  second  verse,  "  Behold  I  send  my  messen- 
ger before  thy  face,  which  shall  prepare  the  way  before  me,"  is 
taken,  as  I  have  said  before,  from  Malachi.  The  third  verse, 
which  says,  "  The  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  prepare 
ye  the  way  of  the  Lord,  make  his  path  straight,"  is  not  in  Malachi, 
but  in  Isaiah,  chap,  xi,  verse  3.  "Whiston  says,  that  both  these 
verses  were  originally  in  Isaiah.  If  so,  it  is  another  instance  of 
the  disordered  state  of  the  Bible,  and  corroborates  what  I  have 
said  with  respect  to  the  name  and  description  of  Cyrus  being  in 
the  book  of  Isaiah,  to  which  it  cannot  chronologically  belong. 

The  words  in  Isaiah,  chap.  xl.  verse  3.  "  The  voice  of  him 
that  crxjelh  in  the  wilderness,  prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord,  make 
his  path  straight,"  are  in  the  present  tense,  and  consequently  not 
predictive.  It  is  one  of  those  rhetorical  figures  which  the  Old 
Testament  authors  frequently  used.  That  it  is  merely  rhetorical 
and  metaphorical,  may  be  seen  at  the  6th  verse.  "  And  the  voice 
said,  cry  ;  and  he  said  what  shall  I  cry  1  Ml  flesh  is  grass."  This 
is  evidently  nothing  but  a  figure  ;  for  flesh  is  not  grass  otherwise 
than  as  a  figure  or  metaphor,  where  one  thing  is  put  for  another. 
Besides  which,  the  whole  passage  is  too  general  and  declamatory 
to  be  applied  exclusively  to  any  particular  person  or  purpose. 

I  pass  on  to  the  eleventh  chapter. 

In  this  chapter,  Mark  speaks  of  Christ  riding  into  Jerusalem 
upon  a,  colt,  but  he  does  not  make  it  the  accomplishment  of  a  pro- 
phecy, as  Matthew  has  done  ;  for  he  says  nothing  about  a  prophe- 
cy. Instead  of  which,  he  goes  on  the  other  tack,  and  in  order  to 
add  new  honors  to  the  ass,  he  makes  it  to  be  a  miracle  ;  for  he 
says,  ver.  2,  it  was  "  a  colt  whereon  never  man  sat ;"  signi- 
fying thereby,  that  as  the  ass  had  not  been  broken,  he  consequent- 
ly was  inspired  into  good  manners,  for  we  do  not  hear  that  he 
kicked  Jesus  Christ  off.  There  is  not  a  word  about  his  kicking 
;n  all  the  four  Evangelists. 

I  pass  on  from  these  feats  of  horsemanship,  performed  upon  a 
jack-ass,  to  the  15th  chapter. 

At  the  24th  verse  of  this  chapter  Mark  speaks  of  parting 
Christ's  garments  and  casting  lots  upon  them,  but  he  applies  no 


THE    PROPHECIES.  253 

prophecy  to  it  as  Matthew  does.     He  rather  speaks  of  it  as  a 
thing  then  in  practice  with  executioners,  as  it  is  at  this  day. 

At  the  28th  verse  of  the  same  chapter,  Mark  speaks  of  Christ 
being  crucified  between  two  thieves ;  that,  says  he,  "  the  scrip- 
tures might  be  fulfilled  which  saith,  and  he  was  numbered  with  the 
transgressors."     The  same  thing  might  be  said  of  the  thieves. 

This  expression  is  in  Isaiah,  chap.  hii.  ver.  12 — Grotius  applies 
it  to  Jeremiah.  But  the  case  has  happened  so  often  in  the  world, 
where  innocent  men  have  been  numbered  with  transgressors,  and 
is  still  continually  happening,  that  it  is  absurdity  to  call  it  a  pro- 
phecy of  any  particular  person.  All  those  whom  the  church 
call  martyrs  were  numbered  with  transgressors.  All  the  honest 
patriots  who  fell  upon  the  scaffold  in  France,  in  the  time  of 
Robespierre,  were  numbered  with  transgressors  ;  and  if  himself 
had  not  fallen,  the  same  case,  according  to  a  note  in  his  own  hand- 
writing, had  befallen  me  ;  yet  I  suppose  the  bishop  will  not  allow 
that  Isaiah  was  prophesying  of  Thomas  Paine. 

These  are  all  the  passages  in  Mark  which  have  any  reference 
to  prophecies. 

Mark  concludes  his  book  by  making  Jesus  say  to  his  disciples, 
chap.  xvi.  ver.  15,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gos- 
pel to  every  creature  ;  he  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be 
saved,  but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned,  (fine  Popish  stuff 
this,)  and  these  signs  shall  follow  them  that  behove  ;  in  my  name 
they  shall  cast  out  devils  ;  they  shall  speak  with  new  tongues  ; 
they  shall  take  up  serpents,  and  if  they  drink  any  deadly  thing  it 
shall  not  hurt  them ;  they  shall  lay  hands  on  the  sick,  and  they 
shall  recover." 

Now,  the  bishop,  in  order  to  know  if  he  has  all  this  saving  and 
wonder-working  faith,  should  try  those  things  upon  himself.  He 
should  take  a  good  dose  of  arsenic,  and  if  he  please,  I  will  send 
him  a  rattle-snake  from  America  !  As  for  myself,  as  I  believe  in 
God  and  not  at  all  in  Jesus  Christ,  nor  in  the  books  called  the 
scriptures,  the  experiment  does  not  concern  me. 

I  pass  on  to  the  book  of  Luke. 

There  are  no  passages  in  Luke  called  prophecies,  except- 
ing those  which  relate  to  the  passages  I  have  already  examined. 

Luke  speaks  of  Mary  being  espoused  to  Joseph,  but  he  makes 
no  references  to  the  passage  in  Isaiah,  as  Matthew  does.  He 
speaks  also  of  Jesus  riding  into  Jerusalem  upon  a  colt,  but  he 


254  EXAMINATION    OP 

says  nothing  about  a  prophecy.  He  speaks  of  John  the  Baptist 
and  refers  to  the  passage  in  Isaiah  of  which  I  have  ah-eady 
spoken. 

At  the  13th  chapter,  verse  31,  he  says,  "The  same  day  there 
came  certain  of  the  Pharisees,  saying  unto  him  (Jesus)  get  thee 
out  and  depart  hence,  for  Herod  will  kill  thee — and  he  said  unto 
them,  go  ye  and  tell  that  fox,  behold  I  cast  out  devils  and  I  do 
cures  to-day  and  to-morrow,  and  the  third  day  I  shall  be  per- 
fected." 

Matthew  makes  Herod  to  die  whilst  Christ  was  a  child  in  Egypt, 
and  makes  Joseph  to  return  with  the  child  on  the  news  of  Herod's 
death,  who  had  sought  to  kill  him.  Luke  makes  Herod  to  be 
living,  and  to  seek  the  life  of  Jesus  after  Jesus  was  thirty  years  of 
age  :  for  he  says,  chap.  iii.  v.  23,  "  And  Jesus  began  to  be 
about  thirty  years  of  age,  being,  as  was  supposed,  the  son  of  Jo- 
seph." 

The  obscurity  in  which  the  historical  part  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  involved  with  respect  to  Herod,  may  afford  to  priests  and 
commentators  a  plea,  which  to  some  may  appear  plausible,  but  to 
none  satisfactory,  that  the  Herod  of  which  Matthew  speaks,  and 
the  Herod  of  which  Luke  speaks,  were  different  persons.  Mat- 
thew calls  Herod  a  king;  and  Luke,  chap.  iii.  v.  1,  calls  Herod 
Tetrarch  (that  is,  Governor)  of  Galilee.  But  there  could  be  no 
such  person  as  a  king  Herod,  because  the  Jews  and  their  country 
were  then  under  the  dominion  of  the  Roman  Emperors  who  gov 
erned  then  by  Tetrarchs  or  Governors. 

Luke,  chap.  ii.  makes  Jesus  to  be  born  when  Cyrenius  was 
Governor  of  Syria,  to  which  government  Judea  was  annexed  ; 
and  according  to  this,  Jesus  was  not  born  in  the  time  of  Herod. 
Luke  says  nothing  about  Herod  seeking  the  life  of  Jesus  when  he 
was  born ;  nor  of  his  destroying  the  children  under  t\vo  years 
old  ;  nor  of  Joseph  fleeing  with  Jesus  into  Egypt :  nor  of  his  re- 
turning from  thence.  On  the  contrary,  the  book  of  Luke  speaks 
as  if  the  person  it  calls  Christ  had  never  been  out  of  Judea,  and 
that  Herod  sought  his  life  after  he  commenced  preaching,  as  is  be- 
fore stated.  I  have  already  shown  that  Luke,  in  the  book  called 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  (which  commentators  ascribe  to  LukeO 
contradicts  the  account  in  Matthew,  with  respect  to  Judas  and  the 
thirty  pieces  of  silver.  Matthew  says,  that  Judas  returned  the 
money,  and  that  the  high  priests  bought  with  it  a  field  to  bury 


THE    PROPHECIES.  255 

strangers  in.  Luke  says,  that  Judas  kept  the  money,  and  bought 
a  field  with  it  for  himself. 

As  it  is  impossible  the  wisdom  of  God  should  err,  so  it  is  im- 
possible those  books  should  have  been  written  by  divine  inspira- 
tion. Our  belief  in  God,  and  his  unerrmg  wisdom,  forbids  us  to 
believe  it.  As  for  myself,  I  feel  religiously  happy  in  the  total  dis- 
belief of  it. 

There  are  no  other  passages  called  prophecies  in  Luke  than 
those  I  have  spoken  of.     I  pass  on  to  the  book  of  John. 


THE  BOOK  OF  JOHN. 

John,  like  Mark  and  Luke,  is  not  much  of  a  prophecy-monger. 
He  speaks  of  the  ass,  and  the  casting  lots  for  Jesus'  clothes,  and 
some  other  trifles,  of  which  I  have  already  spoken. 

John  makes  Jesus  to  say,  chap.  v.  ver.  46,  "  For  had  ye  be- 
lieved Moses,  ye  would  have  believed  me,  for  he  wrote  of  me.'' 
The  book  of  the  Acts,  in  speaking  of  Jesus,  says,  chap.  iii.  ver. 
22,  "  For  Moses  truly  said  unto  the  fathers,  a  prophet  shall  the 
Lord  your  God  raise  up  unto  you,  of  your  brethren,  like  unto  me, 
him  shall  ye  hear  in  all  things  whatsoever  he  shalt  say  unto  you." 

This  passage  is  in  Deuteronomy,  chap,  xviii.  ver.  15.  They 
apply  it  as  a  prophecy  of  Jesus.  What  impositions  !  The  per- 
son spoken  of  in  Deuteronomy,  and  also  in  Numbers,  where  the 
same  person  is  spoken  of,  is  Joshua,  the  minister  of  Moses,  and 
his  immediate  successor,  and  just  such  another  Robespierrean 
character  as  Moses  is  represented  to  have  been.  The  case,  as  re- 
lated in  those  books,  is  as  follows  : — 

Moses  was  grown  old  and  near  to  his  end,  and  in  order  to  pre- 
vent confusion  after  his  death,  for  the  Israelites  had  no  settled  sys- 
tem of  government ;  it  was  thought  best  to  nominate  a  successor 
to  Moses  while  he  was  yet  living.  This  was  done,  as  we  are  told, 
in  the  following  manner  : 

Numbers,  chap,  xxvii.  ver.  12.  "  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Mo- 
ses, get  thee  up  into  this  mount  Abarim,  and  see  the  land  which  I 
have  given  unto  the  children  of  Lsrael — and  when  thou  hast  seen 
it,  thou  also  shall  be  gathered  unto  thy  people,  as  Aaron  thy  bro- 
ther is  gathered,  ver.  15.     And  Moses  spake  unto  the  Lord,  say 


256  EXAMINATION    OF 

ing,  Let  the  Lord,  the  God  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh,  set  a  man 
over  the  congregation — Which  may  go  out  before  them,  and  which 
may  go  in  before  them,  and  which  may  lead  them  out,  and  which 
maj  bring  them  in,  that  the  congregation  of  the  Lord  be  not  as 
sheep  that  have  no  shepherd — And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  take 
thee  Joshua,  the  son  of  Nun,  a  man  in  whom  is  the  spirit,  and  lay 
thine  hand  upon  hirti — and  set  him  before  Eleazar,  the  priest,  and 
before  all  the  congregation,  and  give  him  a  charge  in  their  sight — 
and  thou  shalt  put  some  of  thine  honour  upon  him,  that  all  the  con- 
gregation of  the  children  of  Israel  may  be  obedient — ver.  22,  and 
Moses  did  as  the  Lord  commanded, and  he  took  Joshujt,  and  set  him 
before  Eleazar  the  priest,  and  before  all  the  congregation  ;  and  he 
laid  hands  upon  him,  and  gave  him  charge  as  the  Lord  command- 
ed by  the  hand  of  Moses." 

I  have  nothing  to  do,  in  this  place,  with  the  truth,  or  the  conjura- 
tion here  practised,  of  raising  up  a  successor  to  Moses  like  unto 
himself.  The  passage  sufficiently  proves  it  is  Joshua,  and  that  it 
is  an  imposition  in  John  to  make  the  case  into  a  prophecy  of  Jesus, 
But  the  prophecy-mongers  were  so  inspired  with  falsehood,  that 
they  never  speak  truth.* 

*  Newton,  Bishop  of  Bristol  in  England,  published  a  work  in  three  volumes, 
entitled,  "  Dissertations  on  the  Prophecies.''''  The  work  is  tediously  written  and 
tiresome  to  read.  He  strains  hard  to  make  every  passage  into  a  prophecy  that 
suits  his  purpose. — Among  others,  he  makes  this  expression  of  Moses,  "  the 
Lord  shall  raise  thee  up  a  prophet  like  unto  me,"  into  a  prophecy  of  Chrisi.. 
who  was  not  born,  according  to  the  Bible  chronologies,  till  fifteen  hun  -.red  and 
fifty-two  years  after  the  time  of  Moses,  whereas  it  was  an  immediate  successi. 
to  Moses,  who  was  then  near  his  end,  tliat  is  spoken  of  in  the  passage  above 
quoted. 

This  Bishop,  the  better  to  impose  this  passage  on  the  world  as  a  prophecy 
of  Christ,  lias  entirely  omitted  the  account  in  the  bock  of  Numbers  which  I 
have  given  at  length,  word  for  word,  and  which  shows,  beyond  the  possibility 
of  a  doubt,  that  the  person  spoken  of  by  Moses,  is  Joshua,  and  no  other  per- 
son. 

Newton  is  but  a  superficial  writer.  He  takes  up  things  upon  hear-say,  and 
inserts  them  without  either  examination  or  reflection,  and  the  more  extraor- 
dinary and  incredible  they  are,  the  better  he  likes  them. 

In  speaking  of  the  walls  of  Babylon,  (volume  the  first,  page  263,)  he  makes 
a  quotation  from  a  traveller  of  tlie  name  of  Tavernur,  whom  he  calls,  (by  way 
of  giving  credit  to  what  he  says,)  a  celebrated  traveller,  that  those  walls  were 
made  of  burnl  brick,  ten  feet  square  and  three  feet  thick. — If  Newton  had  only 
thought  of  calculating  the  weiglit  of  such  a  brick,  he  would  have  seen  the  im- 
possibility of  their  being  used  or  even  made.  A  brick  ten  feet  square,  and 
three  feet  thick,  contains  tliree  hundred  cubic  feet,  and  allowing  a  cubic  foot 
of  brick  to  be  only  one  hundred  pounds,  each  of  the  Bishop's  bricks  would 
weigh  thirty  thousand  pounds ;  and  it  would  take  about  thirty  cart  loads  of 
clay  (one  horse  carts)  to  make  one  brick. 

But  his  account  of  the  stones  used  in  the  building  of  Solomon's  temple,  (vol- 
ume 2d,  page  211,)  far  exceeds  his  bricks  of  ten  feet  square  in  the  walls  Ot 
Babylon ;  these  are  but  brick-bats  compared  to  them. 


THE    PROPHECIES.  257 

I  pass  to  the  last  passage  in  these  fables  of  the  Evangelists 
called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ. 

John,  having  spoken  of  Jesus  expiring  on  the  cross  between  two 
thieves,  says,  chap.  xix.  verse  32.  "  Then  came  the  soldiers  and 
brake  the  legs  of  the  first  (meaning  one  of  the  thieves)  and  of  the 
other  which  was  crucified  with  him.  But  when  they  came  tc 
Jesus,  and  saw  that  he  was  dead  already,  they  brake  not  his  legs — 
verse  36,  for  these  things  were  done  that  the  Scripture  should  be 
fulfilled,  A  bone  of  him  shall  not  be  broken.^^ 

The  passage  here  referred  to  is  in  Exodus,  and  has  no  more  to 
do  with  Jesus  than  with  the  ass  he  rode  upon  to  Jerusalem  ; — nor 
yet  so  much,  if  a  roasted  jack-ass,  like  a  roasted  he-goat,  might  be 
eaten  at  a  Jewish  passover.  It  might  be  some  consolation  to  an 
ass  to  know  that  though  his  bones  might  be  picked,  they  would 
not  be  broken.     I  go  to  state  the  case. 

The  book  of  Exodus,  in  instituting  the  Jewish  passover,  in 
which  they   were  to  eat  a  he-lamb  or  a  he-goat,  says,   chap,  xii, 


The  stones  ^says  he)  employed  in  the  foundation,  were  in  magnitude  forty 
cubits,  that  is,  above  sixty  feet,  a  cubit,  says  he,  being  somewhat  more  than 
one  foot  and  a  half,  (a  cubit  is  one  foot  nine  inches,)  and  the  superstructure 
(says  this  Bishop)  was  worthy  of  such  foundations.  There  were  some  stones, 
says  he,  of  the  whitest  marble  forty-five  cubits  long,  five  cubits  high,  and  six 
cubits  broad.  These  are  the  dimensions  this  Bishop  has  given,  which  in 
measure  of  twelve  inches  to  a  foot,  is  78  feet  nine  inches  long,  10  feet  6  inches 
broad,  and  8  feet  three  inches  thick,  and  contains  7,234  cubic  feet.  I  now  go 
to  demonstrate  the  imposition  of  this  Bishop. 

A  cubic  foot  of  water  weighs  sixty-two  pounds  and  a  half — The  specific 
gravity  of  marble  to  water  is  as  2  1-2  is  to  one.  The  weight,  therefore,  of  a  cu- 
bic foot  of  marble  is  556  pounds,  which,  multiplied  by  7,234,  the  number  of  cubic 
feet  in  one  of  those  stones,  makes  the  weight  of  it  to  be  1,128,504  pounds,  which 
is  503  tons.  Allowing  then  a  horse  to  draw  about  half  a  ton,  it  will  reqiure  a 
thousand  horses  to  draw  one  such  stone  on  the  groimd ;  how  then  were  they  to 
be  lifted  into  the  building  by  human  hands  ? 

The  bishop  may  talk  of  faith  removing  mountains,  but  all  the  faith  of  all  the 
Bishops  that  ever  lived  could  not  remove  one  of  those  stones  and  their  bodily 
strength  given  in. 

This  Bishop  also  tells  of  great  gxins  used  by  the  Tiu-ks  at  the  taking  of  Con- 
stantinople, one  of  which,  he  says,  was  drawn  by  seventy  yoke  of  oxen,  and  by 
two  thousand  men.     Vol.  3d,  page  1 1 7. 

The  weight  of  a  cannon  that  can-ies  a  ball  of  43  pounds,  which  is  the  largest 
cannon  that  are  cast,  weighs  8000  pounds,  about  three  tons  and  a  half,  and  may 
be  drawn  by  three  yoke  of  oxen.  Any  body  may  now  calculate  what  t?ie 
weight  of  the  Bishop's  great  gim  must  be,  that  reqmred  seventy  yoke  of  oxen 
to  draw  it.     This  Bishop  beats  Gulliver. 

When  men  give  up  the  use  of  the  divine  gift  of  reason  in  writing  on  any  sub- 
ject, be  it  rehgious  or  any  thing  else,  there  are  no  bounds  to  their  extravagance, 
110  limit  to  their  absurdities. 

The  three  volumes  which  this  Bishop  has  written  on  what  he  calls  the  pro- 
phecies, contain  above  1290  pages,  and  he  says  in  vol.  3,  page  117,  "J  have  «tu- 
dUd  brevity."     This  is  as  marvellous  as  the  Bishop's  great  gun. 

33 


258  EXAMINATION    OF 

verse  5.  "  Your  lamb  shall  be  without  blemish,  a  male  of  the  first 
year  ;  ye  shall  take  it  from  the  sheep  or  from  the  goats." 

The  book,  after  stating  some  ceremonies  to  be  used  in  killing 
and  dressing  it,  (for  it  was  to  be  roasted,  not  boiled,)  says,  ver.  43, 
"  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses  and  Aaron,  this  is  the  ordinance 
of  the  passover  :  there  shall  no  stranger  eat  thereof ;  but  every 
man's  servant  that  is  bought  for  money,  when  thou  hast  circum- 
cised him,  then  shall  he  eat  thereof.  A  foreigner  shall  not  eat 
thereof.  In  one  house  shall  it  be  eaten  ;  thou  shalt  not  carry 
forth  ought  of  the  flesh  thereof  abroad  out  of  the  house  ;  neither 
shah  thou  break  a  hone  thereof." 

We  here  see  that  the  case  as  it  stands  in  Exodus  is  a  ceremony 
and  not  a  prophecy,  and  totally  unconnected  with  Jesus's  bones, 
or  any  part  of  him. 

John,  having  thus  filled  up  the  measure  of  apostolic  fable,  con- 
cludes his  book  with  something  that  beats  all  fable  ;  for  he  says 
at  the  last  verse,  "  And  there  are  also  many  other  things  which 
Jesus  did,  the  which  if  they  could  be  written  every  one,  /  suppose 
that  even  the  loorld  itself  could  not  contain  the  books  that  should  be 
written." 

This  is  what  in  vulgar  life  is  called  a  thumper  ;  that  is,  not  only 
a  lie,  but  a  lie  beyond  the  line  of  possibility  ;  besides  which  it  is 
an  absurdity,  for  if  they  should  be  written  in  the  world,  the  world 
would  contain  them. — Here  ends  the  examination  of  the  passages 
called  prophecies. 


I  HAVE  now,  reader,  gone  through  and  examined  all  the  passages 
which  the  four  books  of  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  quote 
from  the  Old  Testament  and  call  them  prophecies  of  Jesus  Christ. 
When  I  first  sat  down  to  this  examination,  I  expected  to  find  cause 
for  some  censure,  but  little  did  I  expect  to  find  them  so  utterly 
destitute  of  truth,  and  of  all  pretensions  to  it,  as  I  have  shown 
them  to  be. 

The  practice  which  the  writers  of  those  books  employ  is  not 
more  false  than  it  is  absurd.  They  state  some  trilling  case  of  the 
person  they  call  Jesus  Christ,  and  then  cut  out  a  sentence  from 
some  passage  of  the  Old  Testament  and  call  it  a  prophecy  of  that 
case.  But  when  the  words  thus  cut  out  are  restored  to  the  place 
'thev  are  taken  from,  and  read  with  the  words  before  and  after 


THE    PROPHECIES.  259 

them,  they  give  the  lie  to  the  New  Testament.     A  short  instance 
or  two  of  this  will  suffice  for  the  whole. 

They  make  Joseph  to  dream  of  an  angel,  who  informs  him  that 
Herod  is  dead,  and  tells  him  to  come  with  the  child  out  of  Egypt. 
They  then  cut  out  a  sentence  from  the  book  of  Hosea,  "  Out  of 
Egypt  have  I  called  my  5ow,"  and  apply  it  as  a  prophecy  in  that 
case. 

The  words  "  And  called  my  Son  aid  of  Egijpf,"  are  in  the 
Jjible  ; — but  what  of  that?  They  are  only  part  of  a  passage,  and 
not  a  whole  passage,  and  stand  immediately  connected  with  other 
words,  which  show  they  refer  to  the  children  of  Israel  coming  out 
of  Egypt  in  the  time  of  Pharoah,  and  to  the  idolatry  they  com- 
mitted afterwards. 

Again,  they  tell  us  that  when  the  soldiers  came  to  break  the 
legs  of  the  crucified  persons,  they  found  Jesus  was  already  dead, 
and,  therefore,  did  not  break  his.  They  then,  with  some  alteration 
of  the  original,  cut  out  a  sentence  from  Exodus,  "  a  bone  of  him 
shall  not  be  broken,"  and  apply  it  as  a  prophecy  of  that  case. 

The  words  "  JVeither  shall  ye  break  a  bone  thereof,"  (for  they 
have  altered  the  text,)  are  in  the  Bible — but  what  of  that?  They 
are,  as  in  the  former  case,  only  part  of  a  passage,  and  not  a  whole 
passage,  and  when  read  with  the  words  they  are  immediately 
joined  to,  show  it  is  the  bones  of  a  he-lamb  or  a  he-goat  of  which 
the  passage  speaks. 

These  repeated  forgeries  and  falsifications  create  a  well-founded 
suspicion,  that  all  the  cases  spoken  of  concerning  the  person 
called  Jesus  Christ  are  made  cases,  on  purpose  to  lug  in,  and  that 
very  clumsily,  some  broken  sentences  from  the  Old  Testament, 
and  apply  them  as  prophecies  of  those  cases  ;  and  that  so  far  from 
his  being  the  Son  of  God,  he  did  not  exist  even  as  a  man — that  he 
is  merely  an  imaginary  orallegorjcal  character,  asApollo,  Hercules, 
Jupiter,  and  all  the  deities  of  antiquity  were.  There  is  no  history 
written  at  the  time  Jesus  Christ  is  said  to  have  lived  that  speaks 
of  the  existence  of  such  a  person,  even  as  a  man. 

Did  we  find  in  any  other  book  pretending  to  give  a  system  of 
religion,  the  falsehoods,  falsifications,  contradictions,  and  absurdi- 
ties, which  are  to  be  met  within  almost  every  page  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament,  all  the  priests  of  the  present  day,  who  supposed 
themselves  capable,  would  triumphantly  show  their  skill  in  criti- 
cism, and  cry  it  down  as  a  most  glaring  imposition.     But  since  the 


260  EXAMINATION    OF 

books  in  question  belong  to  their  own  trade  and  profession,  they 
or  at  least  many  of  them,  seek  to  stifle  every  inqiiiry  into  thenrK 
and  abuse  those  who  have  the  honesty  and  the  courage  to  do  it. 

When  a  book,  as  is  the  case  with  the  Old  and  New  Testa 
ment,  is  ushered  into  the  world  under  the  title  of  being  the  Word 
OF  God,  it  ought  to  be  examined  with  the  utmost  strictness,  in 
order  to  know  if  it  has  a  well  founded  claim  to  that  title  or  not, 
and  whether  we  are  or  are  not  imposed  upon  :  for  as  no  poison  is 
so  dangerous  as  that  which  poisons  the  physic,  so  no  falsehood  is 
so  fatal  as  that  which  is  made  an  article  of  faith. 

This  examination  becomes  more  necessary,  because  when  the 
New  Testament  was  written,  I  might  say  invented,  the  art  of  print- 
ing was  not  known,  and  there  were  no  other  copies  of  the  Old 
Testament  than  written  copies.  A  written  copy  of  that  book 
would  cost  about  as  much  as  six  hundred  common  printed  bibles 
now  cost.  Consequently  was  in  the  hands  of  very  few  persons, 
and  these  chiefly  of  the  church.  This  gave  an  opportunity  to  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament  to  make  quotations  from  the  Old 
Testament  as  they  pleased,  and  call  them  prophecies,  with  very 
little  danger  of  being  detected.  Besides  which,  the  terrors  and 
inquisitorial  fury  of  the  church,  like  what  they  tell  us  of  the  flaming 
sword  that  turned  every  way,  stood  sentry  over  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  and  time,  which  brings  every  thing  else  to  light,  has  served 
to  thicken  the  darkness  that  guards  it  from  detection. 

Were  the  New  Testament  now  to  appear  for  the  first  time, 
every  priest  of  the  present  day  would  examine  it  line  by  line,  and 
compare  the  detached  sentences  it  calls  prophecies  with  the  whole 
passages  in  the  Old  Testament  from  whence  they  are  taken. 
Why  then  do  they  not  make  the  same  examination  at  this  time,  as 
they  would  make  had  the  New  Testament  never  appeared  before? 
If  it  be  proper  and  right  to  make  it  in  one  case,  it  is  equ-ally  proper 
and  right  to  do  it  in  the  other  case.  Length  of  time  can  make  no 
difference  in  the  right  to  do  it  at  any  time.  But,  instead  of  doing 
this,  they  go  on  as  their  predecessors  v/ent  on  before  them,  to  tell 
the  people  there  are  prophecies  of  Jesus  Christ,  when  the  truth  is 
there  are  none. 

They  tell  us  that  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead,  and  ascended  into 
heaven.  It  is  very  easy  to  say  so  ;  a  great  lie  is  as  easily  told  as 
a  little  one.  But  if  he  had  done  so,  those  would  have  been  the 
only  circumstances  respecting  him  that  would  have  differed  from 


THE    PROPHECIES.  261 

the  common  lot  of  man  ;  and,  consequently,  the  only  case  that 
would  apply  exclusively  to  him,  as  prophecy,  would  be  some  pas- 
sage in  the  Old  Testament  that  foretold  such  things  of  him.  But 
there  is  not  a  passage  in  the  Old  Testament  that  speaks  of  a  per- 
son, who,  after  being  crucified,  dead,  and  buried,  should  rise  from 
the  dead,  and  ascend  into  heaven.  Our  prophecy-mongers  supply 
the  silence  the  Old  Testament  guards  upon  such  things,  by  telling 
us  of  passages  they  call  prophecies,  and  that  falsely  so,  about 
Joseph's  dream,  old  clothes,  broken  bones,  and  such  like  trifling 
stuff. 

In  writing  upon  this,  as  upon  every  other  subject,  I  speak  a  lan- 
guage full  and  intelligible.  I  deal  not  in  hints  and  intimations.  I 
have  several  reasons  for  this  :  First,  that  I  may  be  clearly  under* 
stood.  Secondly,  that  it  may  be  seen  I  am  in  earnest.  And  third- 
ly, because  it  is  an  affront  to  truth  to  treat  falsehood  with  com- 
plaisance. 

I  will  close  this  treatise  with  a  subject  I  have  already  touched 
upon  in  the  First  Part  of  the  Jlge  of  Reason. 

The  world  has  been  amused  with  the  term  revealed  religion,  and 
the  generality  of  priests  apply  this  term  to  the  books  called  the 
Old  and  New  Testament.  The  Mahometans  apply  the  same  term 
to  the  Koran.  There  is  no  man  that  believes  in  revealed  religion 
stronger  than  I  do  ;  but  it  is  not  the  reveries  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  nor  of  the  Koran,  that  I  dignify  with  that  sacred  title. 
That  which  is  revelation  to  me,  exists  in  something  which  no  hu- 
man mind  can  invent,  no  human  hand  can  counterfeit  or  alter. 

The  Word  of  God  is  the  Creation  we  behold  ;  and  this  word  of 
God  revealeth  to  man  all  that  is  necessary  for  man  to  know  of 
his  Creator. 

Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  power  ?  We  see  it  in  the 
immensity  of  his  creation. 

Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  wisdom  1  We  see  it  in  the 
unchangeable  order  by  which  the  incomprehensible  whole  is 
governed. 

Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  munificence  ?  We  see  it  in 
the  abundance  with  which  he  fills  the  earth. 

Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  mercy  ?  We  see  it  in  his  not 
withholding  that  abundance,  even  from  the  unthankful. 

Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  will,  so  far  as  it  respects  man  % 


262  EXAMINATION    or 

The  goodness  he  shows  to  all,  is  a  lesson  for  our  conduct  to  each 
other. 

In  fine — Do  we  want  to  know  what  God  is  ?  Search  not  the 
book  called  the  Scripture,  which  any  human  hand  might  make,  or 
any  impostor  invent ;   but  the  scripture  called  the  Creation. 

When,  in  the  first  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  I  called  the  Crea- 
tion the  true  revelation  of  God  to  man,  I  did  not  know  that  any 
other  person  had  expressed  the  same  idea.  But  I  lately  met 
with  the  writings  of  Doctor  Conyers  Middleton,  published  the 
beginning  of  last  century,  in  which  he  expresses  himself  in  the 
same  manner  with  respect  to  the  Creation,  as  I  have  done  in  the 
Age  of  Reason. 

He  was  principal  librarian  of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  in 
England,  which  furnished  him  with  extensive  opportunities  of 
reading,  and  necessarily  required  he  should  be  well  acquainted 
with  the  dead  as  well  as  the  living  languages.  He  was  a  man  of 
a  strong  original  mind  ;  had  the  courage  to  think  for  himself,  and 
the  honesty  to  speak  his  thoughts. 

He  made  a  journey  to  Rome,  from  whence  he  wrote  letters  to 
show  that  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of  the  Romish  Christian 
Church  were  taken  from  the  degenerate  state  of  the  heathen  my- 
thology, as  it  stood  in  the  latter  times  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 
He  attacked  without  ceremony  the  miracles  which  the  church  pre- 
tend to  perform  :  and  in  one  of  his  treatises,  he  calls  the  creation 
a  revelation.  The  priests  of  England  of  that  day,  in  order  to  de- 
fend their  citadel  by  first  defending  its  out-works,  attacked  him  for 
attacking  the  Roman  ceremonies  ;  and  one  of  them  censures  him 
for  calling  the  creation  a  revelation — he  thus  replies  to  him  : 

"  One  of  them,"  says  he,  "  appears  to  be  scandalized  by  the 
title  of  revelation  which  I  have  given  to  that  discovery  which  God 
made  of  himself  in  the  visible  works  of  his  creation.  Yet  it  is  no 
other  than  what  the  wise  in  all  ages  have  given  to  it,  who  consider 
it  as  the  most  authentic  and  indisputable  revelation  which  God 
has  ever  given  of  himself,  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  this 
day.  It  was  this  by  which  the  first  notice  of  him  was  revealed 
to  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  and  by  which  alone  it  has  been  kept 
up  ever  since  among  the  several  nations  of  it.  From  this  the 
reason  of  man  was  enabled  to  trace  out  his  nature  and  attributes, 
and,  by  a  gradual  deduction  of  consequences,  to  learn  his  own 
nature  also,  with  all  the  duties  belonging  to  it,  which  relate  either 


THE   PROPHECIES,  263 

to  God  or  to  his  fellow-creatures.  This  consultation  of  things 
was  ordained  by  God,  as  an  universal  law,  or  rule  of  conduct  to 
man — the  source  of  all  his  knowledge — the  test  of  all  truth,  by 
which  all  subsequent  revelations  which  are  supposed  to  have 
been  given  by  God  in  any  other  manner,  must  be  tried,  and  can- 
not be  received  as  divine  any  further  than  as  they  are  found  to 
tally  and  coincide  with  this  original  standard. 

"  It  was  this  divine  law  which  I  referred  to  in  the  passage  above 
recited,  (meaning  the  passage  on  which  they  had  attacked  him,) 
being  desirous  to  excite  the  readers  attention  to  it,  as  it  would 
enable  him  to  judge  more  freely  of  the  argument  I  was  handling. 
For,  by  contemplating  this  law,  he  would  discover  the  genuine  way 
which  God  himself  has  marked  out  to  us  for  the  acquisition  of  true 
knowledge  ;  not  from  the  authority  or  reports  of  our  fellow-crea- 
tures, but  from  the  information  of  the  facts  and  material  objects 
which  in  his  providential  distribution  of  worldly  things,  he  hath 
presented  to  the  perpetual  observation  of  our  senses.  For  as  it 
was  from  these  that  his  existence  and  nature,  the  most  important 
articles  of  all  knowledge,  were  first  discovered  to  man,  so  that 
grand  discovery  furnished  new  light  towards  tracing  out  the  rest 
and  made  all  the  inferior  subjects  of  human  knowledge  more 
easily  discoverable  to  us  by  the  same  method. 

"  I  had  another  view  likewise  in  the  same  passage,  and  appli 
cable  to  the  same  end,  of  giving  the  reader  a  more  enlarged 
notion  of  the  question  in  dispute,  who,  by  turning  his  thoughts  to 
reflect  on  the  works  of  the  Creator,  as  they  are  manifested  to  us 
in  this  fabric  of  the  world,  could  not  fail  to  observe,  that  they  are 
all  of  them  great,  noble,  and  suitable  to  the  majesty  of  his  nature, 
carrying  with  them  the  proofs  of  their  origin,  and  showing  them- 
selves to  be  the  production  of  an  all-wise  and  Almighty  being  ; 
and  by  accustoming  his  mind  to  these  sublime  reflections,  he  will 
be  prepared  to  determine,  whether  those  miraculous  interpositions 
so  confidently  affirmed  to  us  by  the  primitive  fathers,  can  rea- 
sonably be  thought  to  make  part  in  the  grand  scheme  of  the  divine 
administration,  or  whether  it  be  agreeable  that  God,  who  created 
all  things  by  his  will,  and  can  give  what  turn  to  them  he  pleases 
by  the  same  will,  should,  for  the  particular  purposes  of  his  govern- 
ment and  the  services  of  the  church,  descend  to  the  expedient  of 
visions  and  revelations,  granted  sometimes  to  boys  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  elders,  and  sometimes  to  women  to  settle  the  fashion 


264  EXAMINATION    OF 

and  length  of  their  veils,  and  sometimes  to  pastors  of  the  Church, 
to  enjoin  them  to  ordain  one  man  a  lecturer,  another  a  priest ; — 
or  that  he  should  scatter  a  profusion  of  miracles  around  the  stake 
of  a  martyr,  yet  all  of  them  vain  and  insignificant,  and  without  any 
sensible  effect,  either  of  preserving  the  life,  or  easing  the  sufferings 
of  the  saint ;  or  even  of  mortifying  his  persecutors,  who  were 
always  left  to  enjoy  the  full  triumph  of  their  cruelty,  and  the  poor 
martyr  to  expire  in  a  miserable  death.  When  these  things,  I  say, 
are  brought  to  the  original  test,  and  compared  with  the  genuine 
and  indisputable  works  of  the  Creator,  how  minute,  how  trifling, 
how  contemptible  must  they  be  ? — and  how  incredible  must  it  be 
thought,  that  for  the  instruction  of  his  church,  God  should  employ 
ministers  so  precarious,  unsatisfactory,  and  inadequate,  as  the 
estacies  of  women  and  boys,  and  the  visions  of  interested  priests, 
which  were  derided  at  the  very  time  by  men  of  sense  to  whom 
they  were  proposed. 

"  That  this  universal  law  (continues  Middlcton,  meaning  the 
law  revealed  in  the  works  of  the  creation)  was  actually  revealed 
to  the  heathen  world  long  before  the  gospel  was  known,  we  learn 
from  all  the  principal  sages  of  antiquity,  who  made  it  the  capital 
subject  of  their  studies  and  writings. 

"  Cicero  has  given  us  a  short  abstract  of  it  in  a  fragment  still 
-emaining  from  one  of  his  books  on  government,  which  I  shall 
here  transcribe  in  his  own  words,  as  they  will  illustrate  my  sense 
also,  in  the  passages  that  appear  so  dark  and  dangerous  to  my 
antagonists." 

"  The  true  law,  (.says  Cicero,)  is  right  reason  conformable  to 
the  nature  of  things,  constant,  eternal,  diffused  through  all,  which 
calls  us  to  duty  by  commanding — deters  us  from  sin  by  forbid- 
ding ;  which  never  loses  its  influence  with  the  good,  nor  ever 
preserves  it  with  the  wicked.  This  law  cannot  be  over-ruled  by 
any  other,  nor  abrogated  in  whole  or  in  part ;  nor  can  we  be  ab- 
solved from  it  either  by  the  senate  or  by  the  people  ;  nor  are  we  to 
seek  any  other  comment  or  interpreter  of  it  but  himself;  nor  can 
there  be  one  law  at  Rome  and  another  at  Athens — one  now  and  an- 
other hereafter  :  but  the  same  eternal  immutable  law  comprehends 
all  nations  at  all  times,  under  one  common  master  and  governor 
of  all — God.  He  is  the  inventor,  propounder,  enacter  of  this 
law ;  and  whoever  will  not  obey  it  must  first  renounce  himself 
and  throw  off  the  nature  of  man  ;  by  doing  which,  he  will  suffer 


THE    PKOPHECIES.  265 

the  greatest  punishments,  though  he  should  escape  all  the  other 
torments  which  are  commonly  believed  to  be  prepared  for  the 
wicked."     Here  ends  the  quotation  from  Cicero. 

"  Our  Doctors  (contumes  Middleton)  perhaps  will  look  on  this 
as  RANK  DEISM  ;  but  let  them  call  it  what  they  will,  I  shall  ever 
avow  and  defend  it  as  the  fundamental,  essential,  and  vital  part  of 
all  true  religion."     Here  ends  the  quotation  from  Middleton. 

I  have  here  given  the  reader  two  sublime  extracts  from  men 
who  lived  in  ages  of  time  far  remote  from  each  other,  but  who 
thought  alike.  Cicero  lived  before  the  time  in  which  they  tell  us 
Christ  was  born.  Middleton  may  be  called  a  man  of  our  own- 
time,  as  he  lived  within  the  same  century  with  ourselves. 

In  Cicero  we  see  that  vast  superiority  of  mind,  that  sublimity  of 
right  reasoning  and  justness  of  ideas  which  man  acquires,  not  by 
studying  Bibles  and  Testaments,  and  the  theology  of  schools  built 
thereon,  but  by  studying  the  Creator  in  the  immensity  and  un- 
changeable order  of  his  creation,  and  the  immutability  of  his  law. 
"  There  cannot,^'  says  Cicero,  "  be  one  law  nou;  and  another  here- 
after;  hut  the  same  eternal  immutable  law  comprehends  all  nations^ 
at  all  times,  under  one  commonmaster  and  governor  of  all — God." 
But  according  to  the  doctrine  of  schools  which  priests  have  set  up, 
we  see  one  law,  called  the  Old  Testament,  given  in  one  age  of  the 
world,  and  another  law,  called  the  New  Testament,  given  in  an- 
other age  of  the  world.  As  al!  this  is  contradictory  to  the  eternal 
immutable  nature,  and  the  unerring  and  unchangeable  wisdom  of 
God,  we  must  be  compelled  to  hold  this  doctrine  to  be  false,  and 
the  old  and  the  new  law,  called  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament 
to  be  impositions,  fables,  and  forgeries. 

In  Middleton,  we  see  the  manly  eloquence  of  an  enlarged  mind 
and  the  genuine  sentiments  of  a  true  believer  in  his  Creator.  In- 
stead of  reposing  his  faith  on  books,  by  whatever  name  they  may 
De  called,  wheUier  Old  Testament  or  New,  he  fixes  the  creation 
as  the  great  original  standard  by  which  every  other  thing  called  the 
the  word,  or  work  of  God,  is  to  be  tried.  In  this  we  have  an 
indisputable  scale,  whereby  to  measure  every  word  or  work  im- 
puted to  him.  If  the  thing  so  imputed  carries  not  in  itself  the 
evidence  of  the  same  Almightiness  of  power,  of  the  same  unerr- 
ing truth  and  wisdom,  and  the  same  unchangeable  order  in  all  its 
parts,  as  are  visibly  demonstrated  to  our  senses,  and  inoompre- 
34 


266  EXAMINATION  OF 

hensible  by  our  reason,  in  the  magnificent  fabric  of  the  universe, 
that  word  or  that  work  is  not  of  God.  Let  then  the  two  books 
called  the  Old  and  New  Testament  be  tried  by  this  rule,  and  the 
result  will  be,  that  the  authors  of  them,  whoever  they  were,  will  be 
convicted  of  forgery. 

The  invariable  principles,  and  unchangeable  order,  which  regu- 
'ate  the  movements  of  all  the  parts  that  compose  the  universe, 
demonstrate  both  to  our  senses  and  our  reason  that  its  Creator  is  a 
God  of  unerring  truth.  But  the  Old  Testament,  besides  the  num- 
berless, absurd,  and  bagatelle  stories  it  tells  of  God,  represents 
him  as  a  God  of  deceit,  a  God  not  to  be  confided  in.  Ezekiel 
makes  God  to  say,  chap.  14,  ver.  9,  "  And  if  the  prophet  be 
deceived  when  he  hath  spoken  a  thing,  I,  the  Lord  have  deceived 
that  prophet.''''  And  at  the  20th  chap.  ver.  25,  he  makes  God  in 
speaking  of  the  children  of  Israel  to  say  "  Wherefore  I  gave  them 
statutes  that  were  not  good,  and  judgments  hij  which  they  coidd 
not  live.^' 

This,  so  far  from  being  the  word  of  God,  is  horrid  blasphemy 
against  him.  Reader  put  thy  confidence  in  thy  God,  and  put  no 
trust  in  the  Bible. 

The  same  Old  Testament,  after  telling  us  that  God  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  in  six  days,  makes  the  same  almighty  power 
and  eternal  wisdom  employ  itself  in  giving  directions  how  a  priest's 
garment  should  be  cut,  and  what  sort  of  stuff  they  should  be  made 
of,  and  what  their  offerings  should  be,  gold,  and  silver,  and  brass, 
and  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  and  fine  linen,  and  goat's  hair, 
and  rams'  skins  died  red,  and  badger  skins,  &c.  chap.  xxv.  ver.  3  ; 
and  in  one  of  the  pretended  prophecies  I  have  just  examined, 
God  is  made  to  give  directions  how  they  should  kill,  cook,  and  eat 
a  he-lamb  or  a  he-goat.  And  Ezekiel,  chap.  iv.  to  fill  up  the 
measure  of  abominable  absurdity,  makes  God  to  order  him  to  take 
"  wheat,  and,  barley,  and  beans,  and  lentiles,  and  millet,  and  fitches^ 
and  make  a  haf  or  a  cake  thereof,  and  bake  it  with  human  dung 
and  eat  it ;"  but  as  Ezekiel  complained  that  this  mess  was  too 
strong  for  his  stomach,  the  matter  was  compromised  from  man's 
dung  to  cow  dung,  Ezekiel,  chap.  iv.  Compare  all  this  ribaldry, 
blasphemously  called  the  word  of  God,  with  the  Almighty  power 
that  created  the  universe,  and  whose  eternal  wisdom  directs  and 
governs  all  its  mighty  movements,  and  we  shall  be  at  a  loss  to  find 
name  sufficiently  contemptible  for  it. 


THE  rROPIIECIES.  267 

In  the  promises  which  the  Old  Testament  pretends  that  God 
made  to  his  people,  the  same  derogatory  ideas  of  him  prevail.  It 
makes  God  to  promise  to  Abraham,  that  his  seed  should  be  like 
the  stars  in  heaven  and  the  sand  on  the  sea  shore  for  multitude, 
and  that  he  would  give  them  the  land  of  Canaan  as  their  inheri- 
tance for  ever.  But  observe,  reader,  how  the  performance  of  this 
promise  was  to  begin,  and  then  ask  thine  own  reason,  if  the  wisdom 
of  God,  whose  power  is  equal  to  his  will,  could,  consistently  with 
that  power  and  that  wisdom,  make  such  a  promise. 

The  performance  of  the  promise  was  to  begin,  according  to  that 
book,  by  four  hundred  years  of  bondage  and  affliction.  Genesis, 
chap.  XV.  ver.  13.  "  .y3nd  God  said  unto  Mraliam,  knoiu  of  a 
surety,  that  thy  seed  shall  be  a  stranger  in  a  land  that  is  not  theirs, 
and  shall  serve  them,  and  they  shall  ajjlict  them  four  hundred 
years."  This  promise,  then,  to  Abraham,  and  his  seed  for  ever,  to 
inherit  the  land  of  Canaan,  had  it  been  a  fact,  instead  of  a  fable, 
was  to  operate,  in  the  commencement  of  it,  as  a  curse  upon  all 
the  people  and  their  children,  and  their  children's  children  for  four 
hundred  years. 

But  the  case  is,  the  Book  of  Genesis  was  written  after  the  bond- 
age in  Egypt  had  taken  place  ;  and  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  dis- 
grace of  the  Lord's  chosen  people,  as  they  called  themselves,  be- 
ing in  bondage  to  the  Gentiles,  they  make  God  to  be  the  author  of 
it,  and  annex  it  as  a  condition  to  a  pretended  promise  ;  as  if 
God,  in  making  that  promise,  had  exceeded  his  power  in  perform- 
ing it,  and  consequently  his  wisdom  in  making  it,  and  was  obliged 
to  compromise  with  them  for  one  half,  and  with  the  Egyptians,  to 
whom  they  were  to  be  in  bondage,  for  the  other  half. 

Without  degrading  my  own  reason  by  bringing  those;  wretchea 
and  contemptible  tales  into  a  comparative  view,  with  the  Almighty 
power  and  eternal  wisdom,  which  the  Creator  hath  demonstrated 
to  our  senses  in  the  creation  of  the  universe,  I  will  confine  myself 
to  say,  that  if  we  compare  them  with  the  divine  and  forcible  senti- 
ments of  Cicero,  the  result  will  be,  that  the  human  mind  has  de- 
generated by  believing  them.  Man  in  a  state  of  grovelling  super- 
stition, from  which  he  has  not  courage  to  rise,  looses  the  energy 
of  his  mental  powers. 

I  will  not  tire  the  reader  with  more  observations  on  the  Old 
Testament. 

As  to  the  New  Testament,  if  it  be  brought  and  tried  by  that 


26:?  EXAMINATION    OF 

standaid  tvhich,  as  Middleton  wisely  says,  God  has  revealed  to 
our  senses  of  his  Almighty  power  and  wisdom  in  the  creation  and 
government  of  the  visible  universe,  it  will  be  found  equally  as 
false,  paltry,  and  absurd,  as  the  Old. 

Without  entering,  in  this  place,  into  any  other  argument,  that 
the  story  of  Christ  is  of  human  invention,  and  not  of  divine  ori- 
gin, I  will  confine  myself  to  show  that  it  is  derogatory  to  God,  by 
the  contrivance  of  it  ;  because  the  means  it  supposes  God  to  use, 
are  not  adequate  to  the  end  to  be  obtained  ;  and,  therefore,  are  de- 
rogatory to  the  Almightiness  of  his  power,  and  the  eternity  of  his 
wisdom. 

The  New  Testament  supposes  that  God  sent  his  Son  upon 
earth  to  make  a  new  covenant  with  man  ;  which  the  church  calls 
the  covenant  of  Grace,  and  to  instruct  mankind  in  a  new  doctrine, 
which  it  calls  Faith,  meaning  thereby,  not  faith  in  God,  for  Cicero 
and  all  true  Deists  always  had  and  always  w  ill  have  this  ;  but  faith 
in  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  whoever  had  not  this 
faith  should,  to  use  the  words  of  the  New  Testament,  be 
DAMNED. 

Now,  if  this  were  a  fact,  it  is  consistent  with  that  attribute  of 
God,  called  his  Goodness,  that  no  time  should  be  lost  in  letting 
poor  unfortunate  man  know  it  ;  and  as  that  goodness  was  united 
to  Almighty  power,  and  that  power  to  Almighty  wisdom,  all  the 
means  existed  in  the  hand  of  the  Creator  to  make  it  known  imme- 
diately over  the  whole  earth,  in  a  manner  suitable  to  the  Almighti- 
ness of  his  divine  nature,  and  with  evidence  that  would  not  leave 
man  in  doubt ;  for  it  is  always  incumbent  upon  us,  in  all  cases,  to 
believe  that  the  Almighty  always  acts,  not  by  imperfect  means  as 
imperfect  man  acts,  but  consistently  with  his  Almightiness.  It  is 
this  only  that  can  become  the  infallible  criterion  by  which  we  can 
possibly  distinguish  the  works  of  God  from  the  works  of  man. 

Observe  now,  reader,  how  the  comparison  between  this  supposed 
mission  of  Christ,  on  the  belief  or  disbelief  of  which  they  say 
man  was  to  be  saved  or  damned — observe,  I  say,  how  the  com- 
parison between  this  and  the  Almighty  power  and  wisdom  of  God 
demonstrated  to  our  senses  in  the  visible  creation,  goes  on. 

The  Old  Testament  tells  us  that  God  created  the  heavens  and 
the  earth,  and  every  thing  therein,  in  six  days.  The  term  six 
days  is  ridiculous  enough  when  applied  to  God  ;  but  leaving  out 
that   absurdity,  it  contains   the  idea  of  Almighty  power  acting 


THE    rROPHECIES.  269 

unitedl)  with  Almighty  wisdom,  to  produce  an  immense  work, 
that  of  the  creation  of  the  universe  and  every  thing  therein,  in  a 
short  time. 

Now  as  the  eternal  salvation  of  man  is  of  much  greater  impor- 
tance than  his  creation,  and  as  that  salvation  depends,  as  the  New 
Testament  tells  us,  on  man's  knowledge  of,  and  belief  in  the  per- 
son called  Jesus  Christ,  it  necessarily  follows  from  our  belief  in 
the  goodness  and  justice  of  God,  and  our  knowledge  of  his  al- 
mighty power  and  wisdom,  as  demonstrated  in  the  creation,  that 
ALL  THIS,  if  true,  would  be  made  known  to  all  parts  of  the  world, 
in  as  little  time  at  least,  as  was  employed  in  making  the  world. 
To  suppose  the  Almighty  would  pay  greater  regard  and  attention 
to  the  creation  and  organization  of  inanimate  matter,  than  he  would 
to  the  salvation  of  innumerable  millions  of  souls,  which  himself  had 
created,  "  as  the  image  of  himself,"  is  to  offer  an  insult  to  his 
goodness  and  his  justice. 

Now  observe,  reader,  how  the  promulgation  of  this  pretended 
salvation  by  a  knowledge  of,  and  a  belief  in  Jesus  Christ  went  on, 
compared  with  the  work  of  creation. 

In  the  first  place,  it  took  longer  time  to  make  a  child  than  to 
make  the  world,  for  nine  months  were  passed  away  and  totally 
lost  in  a  state  of  pregnancy :  which  is  more  than  forty  times 
longer  time  than  God  employed  in  making  the  world,  according 
to  the  Bible  account.  Secondly ;  several  years  of  Christ's  life 
were  lost  in  a  state  of  human  infancy.  But  the  universe  was  in 
maturity  the  moment  it  existed.  Thirdly  ;  Christ,  as  Luke  aserts, 
was  thirty  years  old  before  he  began  to  preach  what  they  call  his 
mission.  Millions  of  souls  died  in  the  mean  time  without  know- 
ing it.  Fourthly;  it  was  above  three  hundred  years  from  that 
time  before  the  book  called  the  New  Testament  was  compiled 
into  a  written  copy,  before  which  time  there  was  no  such  book. 
Fifthly  ;  it  was  above  a  thousand  years  after  that,  before  it  could 
be  circulated  ;  because  neither  Jesus  nor  his  apostles  had  know- 
ledge of,  or  were  inspired  with  the  art  of  printing :  and,  conse- 
quently, as  the  means  for  making  it  universally  known  did  not 
exist,  the  means  were  not  equal  to  the  end,  and,  therefore,  it  is 
not  the  work  of  God. 

I  will  here  subjoin  the  nineteenth  Psalm,  which  is  truly  deisti- 
cal,  to  show  how  universally  and  instantaneously  the  works  ot 


270  EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PROPHECIES. 

God  make  themselves  known,  compared  with  this  pretended  sal 
vation  by  Jesus  Christ. 

Psahn  19th.  "The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and 
the  firmament  showeth  his  handy  work — Day  unto  day  uttereth 
speech,  and  night  unto  night  showeth  knowledge — There  is  no 
speech  nor  language  where  their  voice  is  not  heard — Their  line  is 
gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  and  their  words  to  the  end  of  the 
world.  In  them  hath  he  set  a  chamber  for  the  sun.  Which  is  a 
bridegroom  coming  out  of  his  chamber,  and  rejoiceth  as  a  strong 
man  to  run  a  race — his  going  forth  is  from  the  end  of  the  neaven, 
and  his  circuit  unto  the  ends  of  it,  and  there  is  nothing  nid  from 
the  heat  thereof." 

Now,  had  the  news  of  salvation  by  Jesus  Christ  been  inscribed 
on  the  face  of  the  Sun  and  the  Moon,  in  characters  that  all  nations 
would  have  understood,  the  whole  earth  had  known  it  m  twenty- 
four  hours,  and  all  nations  would  have  believed  it ;  wnereas, 
though  it  is  now  almost  two  thousand  years  since,  as  thev  tell  us, 
Christ  came  upon  earth,  not  a  twentieth  part  of  the  people  of  t'ne 
earth  know  any  thing  of  it,  and  among  those  who  do,  the  wiser 
part  do  not  believe  it. 

I  have  now  reader  gone  through  all  the  passages  called  prophe- 
cies of  Jesus  Christ,  and  shown  there  is  no  such  thing. 

I  have  examined  the  story  told  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  compared 
the  several  circumstances  of  it  with  that  revelation,  which,  as  Mid- 
dleton  wisely  says,  God  has  made  to  us  of  his  Power  and  Wisdom 
in  the  structure  of  the  universe,  and  by  which  every  thing  ascrib- 
ed to  him  is  to  be  tried.  The  result  is,  that  the  story  of  Christ 
has  not  one  trait,  either  in  its  character,  or  in  the  means  employed, 
that  bears  the  least  resemblance  to  the  power  and  wisdom  of  God, 
as  demonstrated  in  the  creation  of  the  universe.  All  the  means 
are  human  means,  slow,  uncertain,  and  inadequate  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  end  proposed,  and,  therefore,  the  whole  is  a  fabu- 
lous invention,  and  undeserving  of  credit. 

The  priests  of  the  present  day,  profess  to  believe  it.  They 
gain  their  living  by  it,  and  they  exclaim  against  something  they 
call  infidelity.     I  will  define  what  it  is.     He  that  believes  in 

THE    STORY    OF    ChRIST    IS    AN    InfIDEL    TO    GoD. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


APPENDIX. 

CONTRADICTORY  DOCTRINES  IN  THE 

:n"ew  testament, 

BETWEEN 

MATTHEW  AND  MARK. 


In  the  New  Testament.  Mark,  chap,  xvi.  ver.  16,  it  is  said 
"  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved  ;  he  that  be- 
lieveth  not  shall  be  damned."  This  is  making  salvation,  or,  in 
other  words,  the  happiness  of  man  after  this  life,  to  depend  entire- 
ly on  believing,  or  on  what  Christians  call  faith. 

But  the  25th  chapter  of  The  Gospel  according  to  JSIatthew 
makes  Jesus  Christ  to  preach  a  direct  contrary  doctrine  to  The 
Gospel  according  to  JMark ;  for  it  makes  salvation,  or  the  future 
happiness  of  man,  to  depend  entirely  on  good  ivorks ;  and  those 
good  works  are  not  works  done  to  God,  for  he  needs  them  not, 
but  good  works  done  to  man. 

The  passage  referred  to  in  Matthew  is  the  account  there  given 
of  what  is  called  the  last  day,  or  the  day  of  judgment,  where  the 
whole  world  is  represented  to  be  divided  into  two  parts,  the  right- 
eous and  the  unrighteous,  mataphorically  called  the  sheep  and  the 
goats. 

To  the  one  part  called  the  righteous,  or  the  sheep,  it  says, 
"  Come  ye  blessed  of  my  father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for 
you  from  the  beginning  of  the  world — for  I  was  an  hungered  and 
ye  gave  me  meat — I  was  thirsty  and  ye  gave  me  drink — I  was  a 
stranger  and  ye  took  me  in — Naked  and  ye  clothed  me — I  was 
sick  and  ye  visited  me — I  was  in  prison  and  ye  came  unto  me." 


272  APPENDIX. 

"  Then  shall  the  righteous  answer  him,  saying,  Lord,  when  saw 
we  thee  an  hungered  and  fed  thee,  or  thirsty  and  gave  thee  drink  ? 
TMien  saw  we  thee  a  stranger  and  took  thee  in,  or  naked  and 
clothed  thee  ?  Or  when  saw  we  thee  sick  and  in  prison,  and  came 
unto  thee  ? 

"  And  the  king  shall  answer  and  say  unto  them,  verity  I  say  unto 
you  in  as  much  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me." 

Here  is  nothing  about  believing  in  Christ — nothing  about  that 
phantom  of  the  imagination  called  Faith.  The  works  here  spo- 
ken of,  are  works  of  humanity  and  benevolence,  or,  in  other  words, 
an  endeavour  to  make  God's  creation  happy.  Here  is  nothing 
about  preaching  and  making  long  prayers,  as  if  God  must  be  dic- 
tated to  by  man  ;  nor  about  building  churches  and  meetings,  nor 
hiring  priests  to  pray  and  preach  in  them.  Here  is  nothing  about 
predestination,  that  lust  Yvhich  some  men  have  for  damning  one 
another.  Here  is  nothing  about  baptism,  whether  by  sprinkling 
or  plunging,  nor  about  any  of  those  ceremonies  for  which  the 
Christian  church  has  been  fighting,  persecuting,  and  burning  each 
other,  ever  since  the  Christian  church  began. 

If  it  be  asked,  why  do  not  priests  preach  the  doctrine  contained 
in  this  chapter  ?  The  answer  is  easy  ; — they  are  not  fond  o» 
practising  it  themselves.  It  does  not  answer  for  their  trade. 
They  had  rather  get  than  give.  Charity  with  them  begins  ana 
ends  at  home. 

Had  it  been  said,  Come  ye  blessed,  ye  have  been  liberal  in  pay- 
ing the  preachers  of  the  word,  ye  have  contributed  largely  toioards 
building  churches  and  meeting-houses,  there  is  not  a  hired  priest 
in  Christendom  but  would  have  thundered  it  continually  in  the  ears 
of  his  congregation.  But  as  it  is  altogether  on  good  works  done 
to  men,  the  priests  pass  over  it  in  silence,  and  they  will  abuse  me 
for  bringing  it  into  notice. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


> 


Ml" 

PRIVATE    THOUGHTS 

ON    A 

FUTURE  STATE. 


I  HAVE  said,  in  the  first  part  of  the  Age  of  lleason,  that  "  1  hope 
for  happiness  after  this  life."  This  hope  is  comfortable  to  ine, 
and  I  presume  not  to  go  beyond  the  comfortable  idea  of  hope,  with 
respect  to  a  future  state.  J 

I  consider  myself  in  the  hands  of  my  Creator,  and  that  he  will 
dispose  of  me  after  this  life  consistently  with  his  justice  and  good- 
ness. I  leave  all  these  matters  to  him,  as  my  Creator  and  friend, 
and  I  hold  it  to  be  presumption  in  man  to  make  an  article  of  faith 
as  to  what  the  Creator  will  do  with  us  hereafter. 

I  do  not  believe  because  a  man  and  a  woman  make  a  child,  that 
it  imposes  on  the  Creator  the  unavoidable  obligation  of  keeping 
the  being  so  made,  in  eternal  existence  hereafter.  It  is  in  his 
power  to  do  so,  or  not  to  do  so,  and  it  is  not  in  our  power  to  de- 
cide which  he  will  do. 

The  book  called  the  New  Testament,  which  I  hold  to  be  fabu- 
lous and  have  shown  to  be  false,  gives  an  account  in  the  25th 
chapter  of  Matthew,  of  what  is  there  called  the  last  day,  or  the  day 
of  judgment.  The  whole  world,  according  to  that  account,  is 
divided  into  two  parts,  the  righteous  and  the  unrighteous, figurative- 
ly called  the  sheep  and  the  goats.  They  are  then  to  receive  their 
sentence.  To  the  one,  figuratively  called  the  sheep,  it  says, 
•  Come  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for 
you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  To  the  other,  figuratively 
called  the  goats,  it  says,  "  Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed,  into  ever- 
lasting fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels." 

Now  the  case  is,  the  world  cannot  be  thus  divided — the  moral 
world,  like  the  physical  world,  is  composed  of  numerous  degrees 
of  character,  running  imperceptibly  one  into  the  other,  in  such  a 
35 


274  APPENDIX 

manner  that  no  fixed  point  of  division  can  be  found  in  either 
That  point  is  no  where,  or  is  every  where.  The  whole  world 
might  be  divided  into  two  parts  numerically,  but  not  as  to  moral 
character  ;  and,  therefore,  the  metaphor  of  dividing  them,  as  sheep 
and  goats  can  be  divided,  whose  difference  is  marked  by  their  ex- 
ternal figure,  is  absurd.  All  sheep  are  still  sheep  ;  all  goats  are 
still  goats  ;  it  is  their  physical  nature  to  be  so.  But  one  part  of 
the  world  are  not  all  good  alike,  nor  the  other  part  all  wicked  alike. 
There  are  some  exceedingly  good  ;  others  exceedingly  wicked. 
There  is  another  description  of  men  who  cannot  be  ranked  with 
either  the  one  or  the  other — they  belong  neither  to  the  sheep  nor 
the  goats. 

My  own  opinion  is,  that  those  whose  lives  have  been  spent  in 
doing  good,  and  endeavouring  to  make  their  fellow-mortals  happy, 
for  this  is  the  only  way  in  which  we  can  serve  God,  loill  he  happy 
hereafter  :  and  that  the  very  wicked  will  meet  with  some  punish- 
ment. This  is  my  opinion.  It  is  consistent  with  my  idea  o' 
God's  justice,  and  with  the  reason  that  God  has  given  me. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


EXTRACT  FROM  A  REPL^ 


BISHOP   OF  LLANDAFF 


^=.e4<,« 


[This  extract  from  Mr.  Pain's  reply  to  Watson,  Bishop  of  LlandafF,  was 
given  by  him,  not  long  before  his  death,  to  Mrs.  Palmer,  widow  of  Elihu  Pal- 
mer. He  retained  the  work  entire,  and,  therefore,  must  have  transcribed  this 
part,  wliich  was  unusual  for  )iim  to  do.  Probably  he  had  discovered  errors, 
which  he  corrected  in  the  copy.  Mrs.  Palmer  presented  it  to  the  editor  of  a 
periodical  work,  entitled  the  Theopliilanthropist,  published  in  New- York,  in 
wliich  it  appeared  m  1810.] 


GENESIS. 

The  bishop  says,  "  the  oldest  book  in  the  world  is  Genesis." 
This  is  mere  assertion  ;  he  offers  no  proof  of  it,  and  I  go  to  con- 
trovert it,  and  to  show  that  the  book  of  Job,  which  is  not  a  Hebrew 
book,  but  is  a  book  of  the  Gentiles,  translated  into  Hebrew,  is 
much  older  than  the  book  of  Genesis. 

The  book  of  Genesis  means  the  book  of  Generations  ;  to  which 
are  prefixed  two  chapters,  the  first  and  second,  which  contain  two 
different  cosmoganies,  that  is,  two  different  accounts  of  the  creation 
of  the  world,  written  by  different  persons,  as  I  have  shown  in  the 
preceding  part  of  this  work.* 

The  first  cosmogany  begins  at  the  first  verse  of  the  first  chap- 
ter, and  ends  at  the  end  of  the  third  verse  of  the  second  chapter  ; 
for  the  adverbial  conjunction  this,  with  which  the  second  chapter 
begins,  shows  those  three  verses  to  belong  to  the  first  chapter. 
The  second  cosmogany  begins  at  the  fourth  verse  of  the  second 
chapter,  and  ends  with  that  chapter. 

In  the  first  cosmogany  the  name  of  God  is  used,  without  any 

*  See  Letter  to  Erskine,  page  J65. 


276  REPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP. 

epithet  joined  to  it,  and  is  repeated  thirty-five  times.  Ir\  the  second 
cosmogany  it  is  always  the  Lord  God,  which  is  repeated  eleven 
times.  These  two  different  styles  of  expression  show  these  two 
chapters  to  be  the  work  of  two  different  persons,  and  the  contra- 
dictions they  contain,  show  they  cannot  be  the  work  of  one  and  the 
same  person,  as  I  have  already  shown. 

The  third  chapter,  in  which  the  style  of  Lord  God  is  continued 
in  every  instance,  except  in  the  supposed  conversation  between 
the  woman  and  the  serpent  (for  in  every  place  in  that  chapter 
where  the  writer  speaks,  it  is  always  the  Lord  God)  shows  this 
chapter  to  belong  to  the  second  cosmogany. 

This  chapter  gives  an  account  of  what  is  called  the  fall  of  man, 
which  is  no  other  than  a  fable  borrowed  from,  and  constructed 
upon  the  religion  of  Zoroaster,  or  the  Persians,  or  the  annual  pro- 
gress of  the  sun  through  the  twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac.  It  is  the 
fall  of  the  year,  the  approach  and  evil  of  winter,  announced  by  the 
ascension  of  the  autumnal  constellation  of  the  serpent  of  the  Zodi- 
ac, and  not  the  moral  fall  of  man  that  is  the  key  of  the  allegory, 
and  of  the  fable  in  Genesis  borrowed  from  it. 

The  fall  of  man  in  Genesis,  is  said  to  have  been  produced  by 
eating  a  certain  fruit,  generally  taken  to  be  an  apple.  The  fall  of 
the  year  is  the  season  for  the  gathering  and  eating  the  new  apples 
of  that  year.  The  allegory,  therefore,  holds  with  respect  to  the 
fruit,  which  it  would  not  have  done  had  it  been  an  early  summer 
fruit  It  holds  also  with  respect  to  place.  The  tree  is  said  to 
have  been  placed  in  the  midst  of  the  garden.  But  why  in  the 
midst  of  the  garden  more  than  in  any  other  place  \  The  situation 
of  the  allegory  gives  the  answer  to  this  question,  which  is,  that 
the  fall  of  the  year,  when  apples  and  other  autumnal  fruits  are  rrpe, 
and  when  days  and  nights  are  of  equal  length,  is  the  mid-season 
between  summer  and  winter. 

It  holds  also  with  respect  to  clothing,  and  the  temperature  of 
the  air.  It  is  said  in  Genesis,  chap.  iii.  ver.  21.  "  Unto  Adam 
and  his  wife  did  the  Lord  God  make  coats  of  skiiis  and  clothed 
themy  But  why  are  coats  of  skins  mentioned  1  This  cannot  be 
understood  as  referring  to  any  thing  of  the  nature  of  moral  evil. 
The  solution  of  the  allegory  gives  again  the  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion, which  is,  that  the  evil  ofivinter,  which  follows  the  fall  of  the 
year,  fabulously  called  in  Genesis  the  fall  of  man,  makes  warnft 
clothing  necessary. 


OF    LI.ANDAFF.  277 

But  of  these  things  I  shall  speak  fully  when  I  comfc  in  another 
part  to  treat  of  the  ancient  religion  of  the  Persians,  and  compare  it 
with  the  modern  religion  of  the  New  Testament.*  At  present,  I 
shall  confine  myself  to  the  comparative  antiquity  of  the  books  of 
Genesis  and  Job,  taking,  at  the  same  time,  whatever  I  may  find  in 
my  way  with  respect  to  the  fabulousness  of  the  book  of  Genesis  ; 
for  if  what  is  called  the  fall  of  man,  in  Genesis,  be  fabulous  or  alle- 
gorical, that  which  is  called  the  redemption,  in  the  New  Testament, 
cannot  be  a  fact.  It  is  morally  impossible,  and  impossible  also  in 
the  nature  of  things,  that  moral  good  can  redeem  physical  evil.  I 
return  to  the  bishop. 

If  Genesis  be,  as  the  bishop  asserts,  the  oldest  book  in  the 
world,  and,  consequently,  the  oldest  and  first  written  book  of  the 
Bible,  and  if  the  extraordinary  things  related  in  it,  such  as  the  cre- 
ation of  the  world  in  six  days,  the  tree  of  life,  and  of  good  and 
evil,  the  story  of  Eve  and  the  talking  serpent,  the  fall  of  man  and 
his  being  turned  out  of  Paradise,  were  facts,  or  even  believed  by 
the  Jews  to  be  facts,  they  would  be  referred  to  as  fundamental 
matters,  and  that  very  frequently,  in  the  books  of  the.  Bible  that 
were  written  by  various  authors  afterwards  ;  whereas,  there  is  not 
a  book,  chapter,  or  verse  of  the  Bible,  from  the  time  Moses  is 
said  to  have  written  the  book  of  Genesis,  to  the  book  of  Malachi, 
the  last  book  in  the  Bible,  including  a  space  of  more  than  a  thou- 
sand years,  in  which  there  is  any  mention  made  of  these  things, 
or  any  of  them,  nor  are  they  so  much  as  alluded  to.  How  will 
the  bishop  solve  this  difficulty,  which  stands  as  a  circumstantial 
contradiction  to  his  assertion  1 

There  are  but  two  ways  of  solving  it : 

First,  that  the  book  of  Genesis  is  not  an  ancient  book  ;  that  it 
has  been  written  by  some  (now)  unknown  person,  after  the  return 
of  the  Jews  from  the  Babylonian  captivity,  about  a  thousand  years 
after  the  time  that  Moses  is  said  to  have  lived,  and  put  as  a  pre- 
face or  introduction  to  the  other  books,  when  they  were  formed 
into  a  cannon  in  the  time  of  the  second  temple,  and,  therefore,  not 
having  existed  before  that  time,  none  of  these  things  mentioned 
m  it  could  be  referred  to  in  those  books. 

Secondly,  that  admitting  Genesis  to  have  been  written  by 
Moses,  the  Jews  did  not  believe  the  things  stated  in  it  to  be  true, 
and,  therefore  as  they  could  not  refer  to  them  as  facts,  they  would 
*  Not  published. 


273  REPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP 

not  refer  to  them  as  fables.  The  first  of  these  solutions  goes 
against  the  antiquity  of  the  book,  and  the  second  against  its  au- 
thenticity, and  the  bishop  may  take  which  he  pleases. 

But,  be  the  author  of  Genesis  whoever  he  may,  there  is  abun- 
dant evidence  to  show,  as  well  from  the  early  Christian  writers,  as 
from  the  Jews  themselves,  that  the  things  stated  in  that  book  were 
not  believed  to  be  facts.  Why  they  have  been  believed  as  facts 
since  that  time,  when  better  and  fuller  knowledge  existed  on  the 
case,  than  is  known  now,  can  be  accounted  for  only  on  the  impo- 
sition of  priestcraft. 

Augustine,  one  of  the  early  champions  of  the  Christian  church, 
acknowledges  in  his  City  of  God,  that  the  adventure  of  Eve  and 
the  serpent,  and  the  account  of  Paradise,  were  generally  consider- 
ed as  fiction,  or  allegory.  He  regards  them  as  allegory  himself, 
without  attempting  to  give  any  explanation,  but  he  supposes  that 
a  better  explanation  might  be  found  than  those  that  had  been 
offered. 

Origen,  another  early  champion  of  the  church,  says,  "  What 
man  of  good  sense  can  ever  persuade  himself  that  there  were  a 
first,  a  second,  and  a  third  day,  and  that  each  of  these  days  had  a 
night  when  there  were  yet  neither  sun,  moon,  nor  stars.  What 
man  can  be  stupid  enough  to  believe  that  God  acting  the  part  of 
a  gardener,  had  planted  a  garden  in  the  east,  that  the  tree  of  life 
was  a  real  tree,  and  that  its  fruit  had  the  virtue  of  making  those 
who  eat  of  it  live  for  ever  V 

Marmonides,  one  of  the  most  learned  and  celebrated  of  the 
Jewish  Rabbins,  who  lived  in  the  eleventh  century  (about  seven 
or  eight  hundred  years  ago)  and  to  whom  the  bishop  refers  in  his 
answer  to  me,  is  very  explicit,  in  his  book  entitled  More  JYeba- 
chim,  upon  the  non-reality  of  the  things  stated  in  the  account  of 
the  Creation  in  the  book  of  Genesis. 

"  We  ought  not  (says  he)  to  understand,  nor  take  according  to 
the  letter,  that  which  is  written  in  the  book  of  the  Creation,  nor  to 
have  the  same  ideas  of  it  with  common  men  ;  otherwise,  our  an- 
cient sages  would  not  have  recommended,  with  so  much  care,  to 
conceal  the  sense  of  it,  and  not  to  raise  the  allegorical  veil  which 
envelopes  the  truths  it  contains.  The  book  of  Genesis,  taken  ac- 
cording to  the  letter,  gives  the  most  absurd  and  the  most  extrava 
gant  ideas  of  the  Divinity.  Whoever  shall  find  out  the  sense  of 
it,  ought  to  restrain  himself  from  divulging  it.     It  is  a  maxim 


OF    LLANDAFF. 


279 


which  all  our  sages  repeat,  and  above  all  with  respect  to  the  work 
of  six  days.  It  may  happen  that  some  one,  with  the  aid  he  may 
borrow  from  others,  may  hit  upon  the  meaning  of  it.  In  that  case 
he  ought  to  impose  silence  upon  himself;  or  if  he  speak  of  it,  he 
ought  to  speak  obscurely,  and  in  an  enigmatical  manner,  as  I  do 
myself,  leaving  the  rest  to  be  found  out  by  those  who  can  under- 
stand." 

This  is,  certainly,  a  very  extraordinary  declaration  of  Marmon- 
ides,  taking  all  the  parts  of  it. 

First,  he  declares,  that  the  account  of  the  Creation  in  the  book 
of  Genesis  is  not  a  fact ;  that  to  believe  it  to  be  a  fact,  gives  the 
most  absurd  and  the  most  extravagant  ideas  of  the  Divinity. 

Secondly,  that  it  is  an  allegory. 

Thirdly,  that  the  allegory  has  a  concealed  secret. 

Fourthly,  that  whoever  can  find  the  secret  ought  not  to  tell  it. 

It  is  this  last  part  that  is  the  most  extraordinary.  Why  all  this 
care  of  the  Jewish  Rabbins,  to  prevent  what  they  call  the  conceal- 
ed meaning,  or  the  secret,  from  being  known,  and,  if  known,  to 
prevent  any  of  their  people  from  telling  it  1  It  certainly  must  be 
something  which  the  Jewish  nation  are  afraid  or  ashamed  the  world 
should  know.  It  must  be  something  personal  to  them  as  a  peo- 
ple, and  not  a  secret  of  a  divine  nature,  which  the  more  it  is  known, 
the  more  it  increases  the  glory  of  the  Creator,  and  the  gratitude 
and  happiness  of  man.  It  is  not  God's  secret,  but  their  own,  they 
are  keeping.     I  go  to  unveil  the  secret. 

The  case  is,  the  Jews  have  stolen  their  cosmogany,  that  is, 
their  account  of  the  Creation,  from  the  cosmogany  of  the  Persians, 
contained  in  the  book  of  Zoroaster,  the  Persian  lawgiver,  and 
brought  it  with  them  when  they  returned  from  captivity  by  the  be- 
nevolence of  Cyrus,  King  of  Persia  ;  for  it  is  evident,  from  the 
silence  of  all  the  books  of  the  Bible  upon  the  subject  of  the  Crea- 
tion, that  the  Jews  had  no  cosmogany  before  that  time.  If  they 
had  a  cosmogany  from  the  time  of  Moses,  some  of  their  judges 
who  governed  during  more  than  four  hundred  years,  or  of  their 
kings,  the  Davids  and  Solomons  of  their  day,  who  governed  nearly 
fiv  hundred  years,  or  of  their  prophets  and  psalmists,  who  lived 
m  the  mean  time,  would  have  mentioned  it.  It  would,  either  as 
fact  or  fable,  have  been  the  grandest  of  all  subjects  for  a  psalm. 
It  would  have  suited  to  a  tittle  the  ranting,  poetical  genius  of 
Isaiah,  or  served  as  a  cordial  to  the  gloomy  Jeremiah.     But  not 


2S0  REPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP 

one  word  nor  even  a  whisper,  does  any  of  the  Bible  authors  give 
upon  the  subject. 

To  conceal  the  theft,  the  Rabbins*bf  the  second  temple  have 
Dublished  Genesis  as  a  book  of  Moses,  and  have  enjoined  secresy 
to  all  their  people,  who,  by  travelling,  or  otherwise,  might  happen  to 
discover  from  whence  the  cosmogany  was  borrowed,  not  to  tell  it. 
The  evidence  of  circumstances  is  often  unanswerable,  and  there 
is  no  other  than  this  which  I  have  given,  that  goes  to  the  whole  ol 
the  case,  and  this  does. 

Diogenes  Laertius,  an  ancient  and  respectable  author,  whom 
the  Bishop,  in  his  answer  to  me,  quotes  on  another  occasion,  has 
a  passage  that  corresponds  with  the  solution  here  given.  In  speak- 
ing of  the  religion  of  the  Persians,  as  promulgated  by  their  priests 
or  magi,  he  says,  the  Jewish  Rabbins  were  the  successors  of  their 
doctrine.  Having  thus  spoken  on  the  plagarism,  and  on  the  non- 
reality  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  I  will  give  some  additional  evi- 
dence that  Moses  is  not  the  author  of  that  book. 

Eben-Ezra,  a  celebrated  Jewish  author,  who  lived  about  seven 
hundred  years  ago,  and  whom  the  bishop  allows  to  have  been  a 
man  of  great  erudition,  has  made  a  great  many  observations,  too 
numerous  to  be  repeated  here,  to  show  that  Moses  was  not,  and 
could  not  be,  the  author  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  nor  any  of  the  five 
books  that  bear  his  name. 

Spinosa,  another  learned  Jew,  who  lived  about  a  hundred  and 
thirty  years  ago,  recites,  in  his  treatise  on  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Jews,  ancient  and  modern,  the  observations  of  Eben-Ezra,  to 
which  he  adds  many  others,  to  show  that  Moses  is  not  the  author 
of  these  books.  He  also  says,  and  shows  his  reasons  for  saying 
it,  that  the  Bible  did  not  exist  as  a  book,  till  the  time  of  the  Mac- 
cabees, which  was  more  than  a  hundred  years  after  the  return  of 
the  Jews  from  the  Babylonian  captivity. 

In  the  second  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  I  have,  among  other 
things,  referred  to  nine  verses  in  the  36th  chapter  of  Genesis,  be- 
ginning at  the  31st  verse,  "  These  are  the  kings  that  reigned  in 
Edom,  before  there  reigned  any  king  over  the  children  of  Israel," 
which  it  is  impossible  could  have  been  written  by  Moses,  or  in  the 
time  of  Moses,  and  could  not  have  been  written  till  after  the  Jew 
kings  began  to  reign  in  Israel,  which  was  not  till  several  hundred 
years  after  the  time  of  Moses. 

The  bishop  allows  this,  and  says  "  I  think  you  say  true."    But 


OF    LLANDAFF.  28"'. 

he  then  quibbles,  and  says,  that  a  small  addition  to  a  book  does  not 
destroy  either  the  genuineness  or  authenticity  of  the  whole  book 
This  is  priestcraft.  These  verses  do  not  stand  in  the  book  as  an 
addition  to  it,  but  as  making  a  part  of  the  whole  book,  and  which 
it  is  impossible  that  Moses  could  write.  The  bishop  would  rejec  ■ 
the  antiquity  of  any  other  book  if  it  could  be  proved  from  the 
words  of  the  book  itself  that  a  part  of  it  could  not  have  been  writ- 
ten till  several  hundred  years  after  the  reputed  author  of  it  was 
dead.  He  would  call  such  a  book  a  forgery.  I  am  authorised, 
therefore,  to  call  the  book  of  Genesis  a  forgery. 

Combining,  then,  all  the  foregoing  circumstances  together  re- 
specting the  antiquity  and  authenticity  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  a 
conclusion  will  naturally  follow  therefrom  ;  those  circumstances 
are, 

First,  that  certain  parts  of  the  book  cannot  possibly  have  been 
written  by  Moses,  and  that  the  other  parts  carry  no  evidence  of 
having  been  written  by  him. 

Secondly,  the  universal  silence  of  all  the  following  books  of  the 
Bible,  for  about  a  thousand  years,  upon  the  extraordinary  things 
spoken  of  in  Genesis,  such  as  the  creation  of  the  world  in  six  days 
— the  garden  of  Eden — the  tree  of  knowledge — the  tree  of  life — 
the  story  of  Eve  and  the  serpent — the  fall  of  man,  and  his  being 
turned  out  of  this  fine  garden,  together  with  Noah's  flood,  and  the 
tower  of  Babel. 

Thirdly,  the  silence  of  all  the  books  of  the  Bible  upon  even  the 
name  of  Moses,  from  the  book  of  Joshua  until  the  second  book  of 
Kings,  which  was  not  written  till  after  the  captivity,  for  it  gives  an 
account  of  the  captivity,  a  period  of  about  a  thousand  years. 
Strange  that  a  man  who  is  proclaimed  as  the  historian  of  the  Cre- 
ation, the  privy-counsellor  and  confident  of  the  Almighty — the 
legislator  of  the  Jewish  nation,  and  the  founder  of  its  religion  ; 
strange,  I  say,  that  even  the  name  of  such  a  man  should  not  find 
a  place  in  their  books  for  a  thousand  years,  if  they  knew  or  believed 
any  thing  about  him,  or  the  books  he  is  said  to  have  written. 

Fourthly,  the  opinion  of  some  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  Jew- 
ish commentators,  that  Moses  is  not  the  author  of  the  book  of 
Genesis,  founded  on  the  reasons  given  for  that  opinion. 

Fifthly,  the  opinion  of  the  early  Christian  writers,  and  of  the 
great  champion  of  Jewish   literature,  Marmonides,  that  the  book 
of  Genesis  is  not  a  book  of  facts. 
36 


282  REPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP 

Sixthly,  the  silence  imposed  by  all  the  Jewish  Rabbins,  and  by 
Marmonides  himself,  upon  the  Jewish  nation,  not  to  speak  of  any 
thing  they  may  happen  to  know,  or  discover,  respecting  the  cos- 
mogany  (or  creation  of  the  w^orld)  in  the  book  of  Genesis. 

From  these  circumstances  the  following  conclusions  offer — 

First,  that  the  book  of  Genesis  is  not  a  book  of  facts. 

Secondly,  that  as  no  mention  is  made  throughout  the  Bible  of 
any  of  the  extraordinary  things  related  in  Genesis,  that  it  has  not 
been  written  till  after  the  other  books  were  written,  and  put  as  a 
preface  to  the  Bible.  Every  one  knows  that  a  preface  to  a  book, 
though  it  stands  first,  is  the  last  written. 

Thirdly,  that  the  silence  imposed  by  all  the  Jewish  Rabbins, 
and  by  Marmonides  upon  the  Jewish  nation,  to  keep  silence  upon 
every  thing  related  in  their  cosmogany,  evinces  a  secret,  they  are 
not  willing  should  be  known.  The  secret,  therefore,  explains  itself 
to  be,  that  when  the  Jews  were  in  captivity  in  Babylon  and 
Persia,  they  became  acquainted  with  the  cosmogany  of  the 
Persians,  as  registered  in  the  Zend-Avesta,  of  Zoroaster,  the 
Persian  lawgiver,  which,  after  their  return  from  captivity,  they 
manufactered  and  modelled  as  their  own,  and  anti-dated  it  by  giv- 
ing to  it  the  name  of  Moses.  The  case  admits  of  no  other  ex- 
planation. From  all  which  it  appears  that  the  book  of  Genesis, 
instead  of  being  the  oldest  book  in  the  iuorhl,  as  the  bishop  calls 
it,  has  been  the  last  written  book  of  the  Bible,  and  that  the  cos- 
mogany it  contains,  has  been  manufactured. 

On  the  iVames  in  the  Book  of  Genesis. 

Every  thing  in  Genesis  serves  as  evidence  or  symptom,  that  the 
Dook  has  been  composed  in  some  late  period  of  the  Jewish  nation. 
Even  the  names  mentioned  in  it  serve  to  this  purpose- 
Nothing  is  more  common  or  more  natural,  than  to  name  the 
children  of  succeeding  generations,  after  the  names  of  those  who 
had  been  celebrated  in  some  former  generation.  This  holds  good 
with  respect  to  all  the  people,  and  all  the  histories  we  know  of, 
and  it  does  not  hold  good  with  the  Bible.  There  must  be  some 
cause  for  this. 

This  book  of  Genesis  tells  us  of  a  man  whom  it  calls  Adam, 
and  of  his  sons  Abel  and  Seth  ;  of  Enoch,  who  lived  365  years  (it 
is  exactly  the  number  of  days  in  a  year,)  and  that  then  God  took 


OF    LLANDAFF.  283 

him  up.  It  has  the  appearance  of  being  tf^ken  from  some  allegory 
of  the  Gentiles  on  the  commencement  and  termination  of  the 
year,  by  the  progress  of  the  sun  through  the  twelve  signs  of  the 
Zodiac,  on  which  the  allegorical  religion  of  the  Gentiles  was 
founded. 

It  tells  us  of  Methuselah  who  lived  969  years,  and  of  a  long 
train  of  other  names  in  the  fifth  chapter.  It  then  passes  on  to  a 
man  whom  it  calls  Noah,  and  his  sons,  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japhet : 
then  to  Lot,  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  and  his  sons,  with  which 
the  book  of  Genesis  finishes. 

All  these,  according  to  the  account  given  in  that  book,  were  the 
most  extraordinary  and  celebrated  of  men.  They  were,  more- 
over, heads  of  families.  Adam  was  the  father  of  the  world. 
Enoch,  for  his  righteousness,  was  taken  up  to  heaven.  Methuse- 
lah lived  to  almost  a  thousand  years.  He  was  the  son  of  Enoch, 
the  man  of  365,  the  number  of  days  in  a  year.  It  has  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  the  continuation  of  an  allegory  on  the  365  days 
of  a  year,  and  its  abundant  productions.  Noah  was  selected  from 
all  the  world  to  be  preserved  when  it  was  drowned,  and  became 
the  second  father  of  the  world.  Abraham  was  the  father  of  the 
faithful  multitude.  Isaac  and  Jacob  were  the  inheritors  of  his 
fame,  and  the  last  was  the  father  of  the  twelve  tribes. 

Now,  if  these  very  wonderful  men  and  their  names,  and  the 
book  that  records  them,  had  been  known  by  the  Jews,  before  the 
Babylonian  captivity,  those  names  would  have  been  as  common 
among  the  Jews  before  that  period  as  they  have  been  since.  We 
now  hear  of  thousands  of  Abrahams,  Isaacs,  and  Jacobs  among 
the  Jews,  but  there  were  none  of  that  name  before  the  Babylonian 
captivity.  The  Bible  does  not  mention  one,  though  from  the  time 
that  Abraham  is  said  to  have  lived,  to  the  time  of  the  Babylonian 
captivity,  is  about  1400  years. 

How  is  it  to  be  accounted  for,  that  there  have  been  so  many 
thousands,  and  perhaps  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Jews  of  the 
names  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  since  that  period,  and 
not  one  before  1  It  can  be  accounted  for  but  one  way,  which 
is  that  before  the  Babylonian  captivity,  the  Jews  had  no  such 
books  as  Genesis,  nor  knew  any  thing  of  the  names  and  persons 
it  mentions  nor  of  the  things  it  relates,  and  that  the  stories  in 
It  have  been  manufactured  since  that  time.     From  the  Arabic 


284  REPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP 

name  Ibrahim  (which  is  the  manner  the  Turks  write  that  name 
to  this  day)  the  Jews  have  rrost  probably  manufactured  their 
Abraham. 

I  will  advance  my  observations  a  point  further,  and  speak  of  the 
names  of  JSIoses  and  Aaron,  mentioned  for  the  first  time  in  the 
book  of  Exodus.  There  are  now,  and  have  continued  to  be  from 
the  time  of  the  Babylonian  captivity,  or  soon  after  it,  thousands 
of  Jews  of  the  names  of  JMoses  and  Aaron,  and  we  read  not  of 
any  of  that  name  before  that  time.  The  Bible  does  not  mention 
one.  The  direct  inference  from  this  is,  that  the  Jews  knew  of  no 
such  book  as  Exodus,  before  the  Babylonian  captivity.  In  fact, 
that  it  did  not  exist  before  that  time,  and  that  it  is  only  since  the 
book  has  been  invented,  that  the  names  o^  JMoses  and  Aaron  have 
been  common  among  the  Jews. 

It  is  applicable  to  the  purpose,  to  observe,  that  the  picturesque 
work,  called  Mosaic-worh,  spelled  the  same  as  you  would  say  the 
JMosaic  account  of  the  creation,  is  not  derived  from  the  word 
JMoses  but  from  JMuses,  (the  JMuses,)  because  of  the  variegated 
and  picturesque  pavement  in  the  temples  dedicated  to  the  JMuses. 
This  carries  a  strong  implication  that  the  name  JMoses  is  drawn 
from  the  same  source,  and  that  he  is  not  a  real  but  an  allegorical 
person,  as  Marmonides  describes  what  is  called  the  J\lGsaic  ac- 
count of  the  Creation  to  be. 

I  will  go  a  point  still  further.  The  Jews  now  know  the  book 
of  Genesis,  and  the  names  of  all  the  persons  mentioned  in  the  first 
ten  chapters  of  that  book,  from  Adam  to  Noah  :  yet  we  do  not 
hear  (I  speak  for  myself)  of  any  Jew  of  the  present  day,  of  the 
name  of  Adam,  Abel,  Seth,  Enoch,  Methuselah,  Noah,*  Shem, 
Ham,  or  Japhet,  (names  mentioned  in  the  first  ten  chapters,)  though 
these  were,  according  to  the  account  in  that  book,  the  most  ex- 
traordinary of  all  the  names  that  make  up  the  catalogue  of 
the  Jewish  chronology. 

The  names  the  Jews  now  adopt,  are  those  that  are  mentioned 
in  Genesis  after  the  tenth  chapter,  as  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  &c. 
How  then  does  it  happen,  that  they  do  not  adopt  the  names  found 
in  the  first  ten  chapters  ?  Here  is  evidently  a  line  of  division 
drawn  between  the  first  ten  chapters  of  Genesis,  and  the  temain- 
ing  chapters,  with    respect  to  the  adoption  of  names.     There 

*  Noah  is  an  exception  ;  there  are  of  that  name  among  the  Jews. — Editor 


OF    LLANDAFF.  285 

must  be  some  cause  for  this,  and  I  go  to  offer  a  solution  of  the 
problem. 

The  reader  will  recollect  the  quotation  I  have  already  made 
from  the  Jewish  Rabbin,  IMarmonides,  wherein  he  says,  *'  We 
ought  not  to  understand  nor  to  take  according  to  the  letter  tha 
which  is  written  in  the  book  of  the  Creation.  It  is  a  maxim  (says 
he)  which  all  our  sages  repeat  above  all,  with  respect  to  the  work 
of  six  days." 

The  qualifying  expression  above  all,  implies  there  are  other 
parts  of  the  book,  though  not  so  important,  that  ought  not  to  be 
understood  or  taken  according  to  the  letter,  and  as  the  Jews  do 
not  adopt  the  names  mentioned  in  the  first  ten  chapters,  it  appears 
evident  those  chapters  are  included  in  the  injunction  not  to  take 
them  in  a  literal  sense,  or  according  to  the  letter  ;  from  which  it 
follows,  that  the  persons  or  characters  mentioned  in  the  first  ten 
chapters,  as  Adam,  Abel,  Seth,  Enoch,  Methuselah,  and  so  on  to 
Noah,  are  not  real  but  fictitious  or  allegorical  persons,  and,  there- 
fore, the  Jews  do  not  adopt  their  names  into  their  families.  If  they 
affixed  the  same  idea  of  reality  to  them  as  they  do  to  those  that 
follow  after  the  tenth  chapter,  the  names  of  Adam,  Abel,  Seth,  &c. 
would  be  as  common  among  the  Jews  of  the  present  day,  as  are 
those  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  Moses  and  Aaron. 

In  the  superstition  they  have  been  in,  scarcely  a  Jew  family 
would  have  been  without  an  Enoch,  as  a  presage  of  his  going  to 
heaven  as  ambassador  for  the  whole  family.  Every  mother  who 
wished  that"  the  claijs  of  her  son  might  be  long  in  the  land  would 
call  him  J[Iethuselah  ;  and  all  the  Jews  that  might  have  to  traverse 
the  ocean  would  be  named  Noah,  as  a  charm  against  shipwreck 
and  drowning. 

This  is  domestic  evidence  against  the  book  of  Genesis,  which 
joined  to  the  several  kinds  of  evidence  before  recited,  show  the 
book  of  Genesis  not  to  be  older  than  the  Babylonian  captivity, 
and  to  be  fictitious.  I  proceed  to  fix  the  character  and  antiquity 
of  the  book  of 

JOB. 

The  book  of  Job  has  not  the  least  appearance  of  being  a  book 
of  the  Jews,  and  though  printed  among  the  books  of  the  Bible, 
does  not  belong  to  it.     There  is  no  reference  in  it  to  any  Jewish 


286  REPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP 

law  or  ceremony.  On  the  contrary,  all  the  internal  evidence  i- 
contains  shows  it  to  be  a  book  of  the  Gentiles,  either  of  Persia  or 
Chaldea. 

The  name  of  Job  does  not  appear  to  be  a  Jewish  name. 
There  is  no  Jew  of  that  name  in  any  of  the  books  of  the  Bible 
neither  is  there  now  that  I  ever  heard  of.  The  country  where  Job 
is  said  or  supposed  to  have  lived,  or  rather  where  the  scene  of  the 
drama  is  laid,  is  called  Uz,  and  there  was  no  place  of  that  name 
ever  belonging  to  the  Jews.  If  Uz  is  the  same  as  Ur,  it  was  in 
Chaldea,  the  country  of  the  Gentiles. 

The  Jews  can  give  no  account  how  they  came  by  this  book,  noi 
who  was  the  author,  nor  the  time  when  it  was  written.  Origen,  in 
his  work  against  Celsus,  (in  the  first  ages  of  the  Christian  church,) 
says,  that  the  booh  of  Job  is  older  than  JMoses.  Eben-Ezra,  the 
Jewish  commentator,  whom  (as  I  have  before  said)  the  bishop  al- 
lows to  have  been  a  man  of  great  erudition,  and  who  certainly 
understood  his  own  language,  says,  that  the  book  of  Job  has 
been  translated  from  another  language  into  Hebrew.  Spinosa, 
another  Jewish  commentator  of  great  learning,  confirms  the 
opinion  of  Eben-Ezra,  and  says  moreover,  "  Je  crois  que  Job 
etait  Gentie  ;*  I  believe  that  Job  was  a  Gentile. 

The  bishop,  (in  his  answer  to  me,)  says,  "  that  the  structure  of 
the  whole  book  of  Job,  in  whatever  light  of  history  or  drama  it  be 
considered,  is  founded  on  the  belief  that  prevailed  with  the  Per- 
sians and  Chaldeans,  and  other  Gentile  nations,  of  a  good  and 
an  evil  spirit." 

In  speaking  of  the  good  and  evil  spirit  of  the  Persians,  the 
bishop  writes  them  Arimanius  and  Oromasdes.  I  will  not  dis- 
pute about  the  orthography,  because  I  know  that  translated  names 
are  differently  spelled  in  different  languages.  But  he  has  never- 
theless made  a  capital  error.  He  has  put  the  Devil  first ;  for 
Arimanius,  or,  as  it  is  more  generally  written,  Miriman,  is  the 
evil  spirit,  and  Oromasdes  or  Ornntsd  the  good  spirit.  He  has 
made  the  same  mistake  in  the  same  paragraph,  in  speaking  of  the 
good  and  evil  spirit  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  Osiris  and  Tijpho, 
he  puts  Typho  before  Osiris.  The  error  is  just  the  same  as  if  the 
bishop  in  writing  about  the  Christian  religion,  or  in  preaching  a 
sermon,  were  to  say  the  Devil  and  God.     A  priest  ought  to  know 

*  Soinosa  on  the  ceremonies  of  the  Jews,  page  296,  published  in  French  at 
Amsterdam,  1678. 


OF    LLANDAFF.  287 

nis  own  trade  better.  We  agree,  however,  about  the  struc^Jre  of 
the  book  of  Job,  that  it  is  Gentile.  I  have  said  in  the  second  part 
of  the  Age  of  Reason,  and  given  my  reasons  for  it,  that  the 
drama  of  it  is  not  Hebreiv. 

From  the  testimonies  I  have  cited,  that  of  Origen,  who,  about 
fourteen  hundred  years  ago,  said  that  the  book  of  Job  was  more 
ancient  than  Moses,  that  of  Eben-Ezra,  who,  in  his  commentary 
on  Job,  says,  it  has  been  translated  from  another  language  (and 
consequently  from  a  Gentile  language)  into  Hebrew  ;  that  of 
Spinosa,  who  not  only  says  the  same  thing,  but  that  the  author  of 
it  was  a  Gentile  ;  and  that  of  the  bishop,  who  says  that  the 
structure  of  the  whole  book  is  Gentile.  It  follows  then  in  the 
first  place,  that  the  book  of  Job  is  not  a  book  of  the  Jews 
originally. 

Then,  in  order  to  determine  to  what  people  qr  nation  any  book 
of  religion  belongs,  we  must  compare  it  with  the  leading  dogmas 
and  precepts  of  that  people  or  nation  ;  and,  therefore,  upon  the 
bishop's  own  construction,  the  book  of  Job  belongs  either  to  the 
ancient  Persians,  the  Chaldeans,  or  the  Egyptians  ;  because  the 
structure  of  it  is  consistent  with  the  dogma  they  held,  that  of 
a  good  and  evil  spnit,  called  in  Job,  God  and  Satan,  existing  as 
distinct  and  separate  beings,  and  it  is  not  consistent  with  any 
dogma  of  the  Jews. 

The  belief  of  a  good  and  an  evil  spirit,  existing  as  distinct  and 
separate  beings,  is  not  a  dogma  to  be  found  in  any  of  the  books  of 
the  Bible.  It  is  not  till  we  come  to  the  New  Testament  that  we 
hear  of  any  such  dogma.  There  the  person  called  the  Son  of 
God,  holds  conversation  with  Satan  on  a  mountain,  as  familiarly 
as  is  represented  in  the  drama  of  Job.  Consequently  the  bishop 
cannot  say,  in  this  respect,  that  the  New  Testament  is  founded 
upon  the  Old.  According  to  the  Old,  the  God  of  the  Jews  was' 
the  God  of  every  thing.  All  good  and  evil  came  from  him.  Ac- 
cording to  Exodus  it  was  God,  and  not  the  Devil,  that  hardened 
Pharoah's  heart.  According  to  the  book  of  Samuel,  it  M'as  an 
evil  spirit  from  God  that  troubled  Saul.  And  Ezekiel  makes  God 
to  say,  in  speaking  of  the  Jews,  '^  I  gave  them  the  statutes  that 
were  not  good,  and  judgments  by  which  they  shoidd  not  live.^* 
The  Bible  describes  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  in 
such  a  contradictory  manner,  and  under  such  a  two  fold  character, 
there  would  be  no  knowing  when  he  was  in  earnest  and  when  in 


-<SOS  REPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP 

irony  ;  when  to  believe,  and  when  not.  As  to  the  precepts,  prin 
ciples,  and  maxims,  in  the  book  of  Job,  they  show  that  the  people, 
abusively  called  the  heathen  in  the  books  of  the  Jews,  had  the 
most  sublime  ideas  of  the  Creator,  and  the  most  exalted  devotion- 
al morality.  It  was  the  Jews  who  dishonoured  God.  It  was  the 
Gentiles  who  glorified  him.  As  to  the  fabulous  personifications 
introduced  by  the  Greek  and  Latin  poets,  it  was  a  corruption  of 
the  ancient  religion  of  the  Gentiles,  which  consisted  in  the  adora- 
tion of  a  first  cause  of  the  works  of  the  creation,  in  which 
the  sun  was  the  great  visible  agent. 

It  appears  to  have  been  a  religion  of  gratitude  and  adoration, 
and  not  of  prayer  and  discontented  solicitation.  In  Job  we  find 
adoration  and  submission,  but  not  prayer.  Even  the  ten  com- 
mandments enjoin  not  prayer.  Prayer  has  been  added  to  devo- 
tion, by  the  church  of  Rome,  as  the  instrument  of  fees  and  per- 
quisites. All  prayers  by  the  priests  of  the  Christian  church, 
whether  public  or  private,  must  be  paid  for.  It  may  be  right, 
individually,  to  pray  for  virtues,  or  mental  instruction,  but  not  for 
things.  It  is  an  attempt  to  dictate  to  the  Almighty  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  world.     But  to  return  to  the  book  of  Job. 

As  the  book  of  Job  decides  itself  to  be  a  book  of  the  Gentiles, 
the  next  thing  is  to  find  out  to  what  particular  nation  it  belongs, 
and  lastly,  what  is  its  antiquity. 

As  a  composition,  it  is  sublime,  beautiful,  and  scientific  :  full  of 
sentiment,  and  abounding  in  grand  metaphorical  description.  As 
a  drama,  it  is  regular.  The  dramatis  personce,  the  persons  per- 
forming the  several  parts,  are  regularly  introduced,  and  speak 
without  interruption  or  confusion.  Th^  scene,  as  I  have  before 
said,  is  laid  in  the  country  of  the  Gentiles,  and  the  unities,  though 
not  always  necessary  in  a  drama,  are  observed  here  as  strictly  as 
the  subject  would  admit. 

In  the  last  act,  where  the  Almighty  is  introduced  as  speaking 
from  the  whirlwind,  to  decide  the  controversy  between  Job  and 
his  friends,  it  is  an  idea  as  grand  as  poetical  imagination  can  con- 
ceive. What  follows  of  Job's  future  prosperity  does  not  belong 
to  it  as  a  drama.  It  is  an  epilogue  of  the  writer,  as  the  first  verses 
of  the  first  chapter,  which  gave  an  account  of  Job,  his  country 
and  his  riches,  are  the  prologue. 

The  book  carries  the  appearance  of  being  the  work  of  some  of 
the  Persian  Magi,  not  only  because  the  structure  of  it  corresponds 


OF    LLANDAFF.  289 

to  the  dogmas  of  the  religion  of  those  people,  as  founded  by  Zo- 
roaster, but  from  the  astronomical  references  in  it  to  the  constel- 
lations of  the  zodiac  and  other  objects  in  the  heavens,  of  which  the 
sun,  in  their  religion  called  Mithra,  was  the  chief.  Job,  in  des- 
cribing the  power  of  God,  (Job  ix.  v.  27,)  says,  "Who  command- 
eth  the  sun,  and  it  riseth  not,  and  sealeth  up  the  stars — who  alone 
spreadeth  out  the  heavens,  and  treadeth  upon  the  waves  of  the  sea 
— who  maketh  Arcturus,  Orion,  and  Pleiades,  and  the  chambers  of 
the  south."  All  this  astronomical  allusion  is  consistent  with  the 
religion  of  the  Persians. 

Establishing  then  the  book  of  Job,  as  the  work  of  some  of  the 
Persian,  or  Eastern  Magi,  the  case  naturally  follows,  that  when  the 
Jews  returned  from  captivity,  by  the  permission  of  Cyrus,  king  of 
Persia  ;  they  brought  this  book  with  them  :  had  it  translated  into 
Hebrew,  and  put  into  their  scriptural  canons,  which  were  not  form- 
ed till  after  their  return.  This  will  account  for  the  name  of  Job 
being  mentioned  in  Ezekiel,  {EzeJciel,  chap.  xiv.  v.  14,)  who  was 
one  of  the  captives,  and  also  for  its  not  being  mentioned  in  anv 
book  said  or  supposed  to  have  been  written  before  the  captivity. 

Among  the  astronomical  allusions  in  the  book,  there  is  one 
which  serves  to  fix  its  antiquity.  It  is  that  where  God  is  made  to 
say  to  Job,  in  the  style  of  reprimand,  "  Canst  thou  hind  the  stveet 
influences  of  Pleiades.^'  (Chap,  xxxviii.  ver.  31.)  As  the  ex- 
planation of  this  depends  upon  astronomical  calculation,  I  will,  for 
the  sake  of  those  who  would  not  otherwise  understand  it,  endeav- 
our to  explain  it  as  clearly  as  the  subject  will  admit. 

The  Pleiades  are  a  cluster  of  pale,  milky  stars,  about  the  size  of 
a  man's  hand,  in  the  constellation  Taurus,  or  in  English,  the  Bull. 
It  is  one  of  the  constellations  of  the  zodiac,  of  which  there  are 
twelve,  answering  to  the  twelve  months  of  the  year.  The  Pleiades 
are  visible  in  the  winter  nights,  but  not  in  the  summer  nights,  be- 
ing then  below  the  horizon. 

The  zodiac  is  an  imaginary  belt  or  circle  in  the  heavens,  eigh- 
teen degrees  broad,  in  which  the  sun  apparently  makes  his  annual 
course,  and  in  which  all  the  planets  move.  When  the  sun  appears 
to  our  view  to  be  between  us  and  the  group  of  stars  forming  such 
or  such  a  constellation,  he  is  said  to  be  in  that  constellation.  Con- 
sequently the  constellation  he  appears  to  be  in,  in  the  summer,  are 
directly  opposite  to  those  he  appeared  in  in  the  winter,  and  the 
same  with  respect  to  spring  and  autumn. 
37 


290  REPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP 

The  zodiac,  besides  being  divided  into  twelve  constellations,  is 
also,  like  every  other  circle,  great  or  small,  divided  into  360  equal 
parts,  called  degrees  ;  consequently  each  constellation  contains 
30  degrees.  The  constellations  of  the  zodiac  are  generally  called 
signs,  to  distinguish  them  from  the  constellations  that  are  placed 
oat  of  the  zodiac,  and  this  is  the  name  I  shall  now  use. 

The  precession  of  the  equinoxes  is  the  part  most  difficult  to  ex- 
plain, and  it  is  on  this  that  the  explanation  chiefly  depends. 

The  equinoxes  correspond  to  the  two  seasons  of  the  year  when 
he  sun  makes  equal  day  and  night. 


The  following  is  a  disconnected  part  of  the  same  work,  and  is  now  (1S24) 
first  published. 


SABBATH,  OR  SUNDAY. 

The  seventh  day,  or  more  properly  speaking  the  period  of  seven 
days,  was  originally  a  numerical  division  of  time  and  nothing 
more  ;  and  had  the  bishop  been  acquainted  with  the  history  of  as- 
tronomy, he  would  have  known  this.  The  annual  revolution  of  the 
earth  makes  what  we  call  a  year. 

The  year  is  artificially  divided  into  months,  the  months  into 
weeks  of  seven  days,  the  days  into  hours,  &c.  The  period  of 
seven  days,  like  any  other  of  the  artificial  divisions  of  the  year,  is 
only  a  fractional  part  thereof,  contrived  for  the  convenience  of 
countries. 

It  is  ignorance,  imposition,  and  priest-craft,  that  have  called  it 
otherwise.  They  might  as  well  talk  of  the  Lord's  month,  of  the 
Lord's  week,  of  the  Lord's  hour,  as  of  the  Lord's  day.  All  time 
is  his,  and  no  part  of  it  is  more  holy  or  more  sacred  than  another. 
It  is,  however,  necessary  to  the  trade  of  a  priest,  that  he  should 
preach  up  a  distinction  of  days. 

Before  the  science  of  astronomy  was  studied  and  carried  to  the 
degree  of  eminence  to  which  it  was  by  the  Egyptians  and  Chalde- 
ans, the  people  of  those  times  had  no  other  helps,  than  what  com- 


OF    LLANDAFF.  291 

mon  observation  of  the  very  visible  changes  of  the  sun  and  moon 
afforded,  to  enable  them  to  keep  an  account  of  the  progress  of 
time.  As  far  as  history  establishes  the  point,  the  Egyptians  were 
the  first  people  who  divided  the  year  into  twelve  months.  Hero- 
dotus, who  lived  above  two  thousand  two  hundred  years  ago,  and 
is  the  most  ancient  historian  whose  works  have  reached  our  time, 
says,  iheij  did  this  by  the  knowledge  Ihey  had  of  the  stars.  As  to 
the  Jews,  there  is  not  one  single  improvement  in  any  science  or 
in  any  scientific  art,  that  they  ever  produced.  They  were  the 
most  ignorant  of  all  the  illiterate  world.  If  the  word  of  the  Lord 
had  come  to  them,  as  they  pretend,  and  as  the  bishop  professes  to 
believe,  and  that  they  were  to  be  the  harbingers  of  it  to  the  rest  of 
the  world  ;  the  Lord  would  have  taught  them  the  use  of  letters,  and 
the  art  of  printing  ;  for  without  the  means  of  communicating  the 
word,  it  could  not  be  communicated  ;  whereas  letters  were  the  in- 
vention of  the  Gentile  world ;  and  printing  of  the  modern  world. 
But  to  return  to  my  subject — 

Before  the  helps  which  the  science  of  astronomy  afforded,  the 
people  as  before  said,  had  no  other,  whereby  to  keep  an  account 
of  the  progress  of  time,  than  what  the  common  and  very  visible 
changes  of  the  sun  and  moon  afforded.  They  saw  that  a  great 
number  of  days  made  a  year,  but  the  account  of  them  was  too  tedi- 
ous, and  too  difficult  to  be  kept  numerically,  from  one  to  three 
hundred  and  sixty-five  ;  neither  did  they  know  the  true  time  of  a 
solar  year.  It,  therefore,  became  necessary,  for  the  purpose  of 
marking  the  progress  of  days,  to  put  them  into  small  parcels,  such 
as  are  now  called  weeks  ;  and  which  consisted  as  they  now  do  of 
seven  days.  By  this  means  the  memory  was  assisted  as  it  is  with 
us  at  this  day  ;  for  we  do  not  say  of  any  thing  that  is  past,  that  it 
was  fifty,  sixty,  or  seventy  days  ago,  but  that  it  was  so  many 
weeks,  or,  if  longer  time,  so  many  months.  It  is  impossible  to 
keep  an  account  of  time  without  helps  of  this  kind. 

Julian  Scaliger,  the  inventor  of  the  Julian  period  of  7,980  years, 
produced  by  multiplying  the  cycle  of  the  moon,  the  cycle  of  the 
sun,  and  the  years  of  an  indiction,  19,  28,  15,  into  each  other  ; 
says,  that  the  custom  of  reckoning  by  periods  of  seven  days  was 
used  by  the  Assyrians,  the  Egyptians,  the  Hebrews,  the  people  of 
India,  the  Arabs,  and  by  all  the  nations  of  the  east. 

In  addition  to  what  Scaliger  says,  it  is  evident  that  in  Britain,  in 
Germany,  and  the  north  of  Europe,  they  reckoned  by  periods   of 


292  REPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP 

seven  days,  long  before  the  book  called  the  bible,  was  known  in 
those  parts  ;  and,  consequently,  that  they  did  not  take  that  mode  of 
reckoning  from  any  thing  written  in  that  book. 

That  they  reckoned  by  periods  of  seven  days  is  evident  from 
their  having  seven  names  and  no  more  for  the  several  days  ;  and 
which  have  not  the  most  distant  relation  to  any  thing  in  the  book  of 
Genesis,  or  to  that  which  is  called  the  fourth  commandment. 

Those  names  are  still  retained  in  England,  with  no  other  altera- 
tion than  what  has  been  produced  by  moulding  the  Saxon  and  Da- 
nish languages  into  modern  English. 

1.  Sun-day  from  Sunne  the  sun,  and  dag,  day,  Saxon.  Sondag^ 
Danish.     The  day  dedicated  to  the  sun. 

2.  Monday,  that  is,  moonday,  from  JMona,  the  moon,  Saxon. 
J^Ioano,  Danish.    Day  dedicated  to  the  moon. 

3.  Tuesday,  that  is  Tuis-co''s-da'i.  The  day  dedicated  to  the 
Idol  Tuisco. 

4.  Wednes-day,  that  is  Woden's-day.  The  day  dedicated  to 
Woden,  the  mars  of  the  Germans. 

5.  Thursday,  that  is,  Thor's-day  dedicated  to  the  Idol  Tlior. 

6.  Friday,  that  is  Friga's-day.  The  day  dedicated  to  FWg-o 
the  Yenus  of  the  Saxons. 

Saturday  from  Seaten  {Saturn)  an  Idol  of  the  Saxons  ;  one  of 
the  emblems  representing  time,  which  contmually  terminates  and 
renews  itself:  The  last  dav  of  the  period  of  seven  days.  When 
we  see  a  certain  mode  of  reckonmg  general  among  nations  totally 
unconnected,  differing  from  each  other  in  religion  and  in  govern- 
ment, and  some  of  them  unknown  to  each  other,  we  may  be  certain 
that  it  arises  from  some  natural  and  common  cause,  prevail- 
ing alike  over  all,  and  which  strikes  every  one  in  the  same  manner. 
Thus  all  nations  have  reckoned  arithmetically  by  tens,  because  the 
people  of  all  nations  have  ten  fingers.  If  they  had  more  or  less 
than  ten,  the  mode  of  arithmetical  reckoning  would  have  followed 
that  number,  for  the  fingers  are  a  natural  numeration  table  to  all 
the  world.  I  now  come  to  show  why  the  period  of  seven  days 
is  so  generally  adopted. 

Though  the  sun  is  the  great  luminary  of  the  world,  and  the  ani- 
mating cause  of  all  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  the  moon  by  renewing 
herself  more  than  twelve  times  oftener  than  the  sun,  which  does 
it  but  once  a  year,  served  the  rustic  world  as  a  natural  almanac, 
as  the  fingers  served  it  for  a  numeration  table.    All  the  world  could 


OF    LLANDAFF.  293 

see  the  moon,  her  changes,  and  her  monthly  revolutions  ;  and  theii 
mode  of  reckoning  time,  was  accommodated  as  nearly  as  could 
possibly  be  done  in  round  numbers,  to  agree  with  the  changes  of 
that  planet,  their  natural  almanac. 

The  moon  performs  her  natural  revolution  round  the  earth  in 
twenty-nine  days  and  a  half.  She  goes  from  a  new  moon  to  a  half 
moon,  to  a  full  moon,  to  a  half  moon  gibbous  or  convex,  and  then 
to  a  new  moon  again.  Each  of  these  changes  is  performed  in 
seven  days  and  nine  hours;  but  seven  days  is  the  nearest  division 
in  round  numbers  that  could  be  taken  ;  and  this  was  sufficient  to 
suggest  the  universal  custom  of  reckoning  by  periods  of  seven 
days,  since  it  is  impossible  to  reckon  time  without  some  stated 
period. 

How  the  odd  hours  could  be  disposed  of  without  interfering 
with  the  regular  periods  of  seven  days,  in  case  the  ancients  recom- 
menced a  new  Septenary  period  with  every  new  moon,  required  no 
more  difficulty  than  it  did  to  regulate  the  Egyptian  Calender  after- 
wards of  twelve  months  of  thirty  days  each,  or  the  odd  hour  in  the 
Julian  Calender,  or  the  odd  days  and  hours  in  the  French  Calen- 
dar. In  all  cases  it  is  done  by  the  addition  of  complementary 
days  ;  and  it  can  be  done  in  no  otherwise. 

The  bishop  knows  that  as  the  Solar  year  does  not  end  at  the 
termination  of  what  we  call  a  day,  but  runs  some  hours  into  the 
next  day,  as  the  quarters  of  the  Moon  runs  some  hours  beyond 
seven  days  ;  that  it  is  impossible  to  give  the  year  any  fixed  num- 
ber of  days,  that  will  not  in  course  of  years  become  wrong,  and 
make  a  complimentary  time  necessary  to  keep  the  nominal  year 
parallel  with  the  solar  year.  The  same  must  have  been  the  case 
■with  those  who  regulated  time  formerly  by  lunar  revolutions. 
They  would  have  to  add  three  days  to  every  second  moon,  or  in 
that  proportion,  in  order  to  make  the  new  moon  and  the  new 
week  commence  together  like  the  nominal  year  and  the  solar  year 

Diodorus  of  Sicily,  who,  as  before  said,  lived  before  Christ  was 
bom,  ill  giving  an  account  of  times  much  anterior  to  his  own, 
speaks  of  years,  of  three  months,  of  four  months,  and  of  six  months. 
These  could  be  of  no  other  than  years  composed  of  lunar  revolu- 
tions, and,  therefore,  to  bring  the  several  periods  of  seven  days,  to 
agree  with  such  years  there  must  have  been  complementary  days. 

The  moon  was  the  first  almanac  the  world  knew  ;  and  the  only 
one  which  the  face  of  the  heavens  afforded  to  common  spectators. 


294  -nEPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP 

Her  changes  and  her  revol  ations  have  entered  into  all  the  Calen- 
ders that  have  been  known  in  the  known  world. 

The  division  of  the  year  into  twelve  months,  which,  as  before 
shown,  was  first  done  by  the  Egyptians,  though  arranged  with  as* 
tronomical  knowledge,had  reference  to  the  twelve  moons,  or  more 
properly  speaking,  to  the  twelve  lunar  revolutions  that  appear  in 
the  space  of  a  solar  year  ;  as  the  period  of  seven  days  had  refer- 
ence to  one  revolution  of  the  moon.  The  feasts  of  the  Jews  were, 
and  those  of  the  Christian  church  still  are,  regulated  by  the  moon. 
The  Jews  observed  the  feasts  of  the  new  moon  and  full  moon,  and, 
therefore,  the  period  of  seven  days  was  necessary  to  them. 

All  the  feasts  of  the  Christian  church  are  regulated  by  the  moon. 
That  called  Easter  governs  all  the  rest,  and  the  moon  governs 
Easter.  It  is  always  the  first  Sunday  after  the  first  full  moon 
that  happens  after  the  vernal  Equinox,  or  21st  of  March. 

In  proportion  as  the  science  of  astronomy  was  studied  and  im- 
proved by  the  Egyptians  and  Chaldeans,  and  the  solar  year  regu- 
lated by  astronomical  observations,  the  custom  of  reckoning  by 
lunar  revolutions  became  of  less  use,  and  in  time  discontinued. 
But  such  is  the  harmony  of  all  parts  of  the  machinery  of  the 
universe,  that  a  calculation  made  from  the  motion  of  one  part  will 
correspond  with  the  motion  of  some  other. 

The  period  of  seven  days  deduced  from  the  revolution  of  the 
moon  round  the  earth,  corresponded  nearer  than  any  other  period 
of  days  would  do  to  the  revolution  of  the  earth  round  the  sun. 
Fifty-two  periods  of  seven  days  make  364,  which  is  within  one 
day  and  some  odd  hours  of  a  solar  year  ;  and  there  is  no  other  pe- 
riodical number  that  will  do  the  same,  till  we  come  to  the  number 
tliirteen,  which  is  too  great  for  common  use,  and  .the  numbers  before 
seven  are  too  small.  The  custom,  therefore,  of  reckoning  by 
periods  of  seven  days,  as  best  suited  to  the  revolution  of  the 
moon,  applied  with  equal  convenience  to  the  solar  year,  and  be- 
came united  with  it.  But  the  decimal  division  of  time,  as  regulated 
by  the  French  Calendar,  is  superior  to  every  other  method. 

There  is  no  part  of  the  Bible  that  is  supposed  to  have  been  writ 
ten  by  persons  who  lived  before  the  time  of  Josiah,  (which  was  a 
thousand  years  after  the  time  of  Moses,)  that  mentions  any  thing 
about  the  sabbath  as  a  day  consecrated  to  that  which  is  called  the 
fourth  commandment,  or  that  the  Jews  kept  any  such  day.  Had 
any  such  day  been  kept,  during  the  thousand  years  of  which  I  am 


OF    LLANDAFF  295 

speaking,  it  certainly  would  have  been  mentioned  frequently  ;  and 
that  it  should  never  be  mentioned,  is  strong,  presumptive,  and  cir- 
cumstantial evidence  that  no  such  day  was  kept.  But  mention  is 
often  made  of  the  feasts  of  the  new-moon,  and  of  the  full-moon ; 
for  the  Jews,  as  before  shown,  worshipped  the  moon  ;  and  the 
word  sabbath  was  applied  by  the  Jews  to  the  feasts  of  that  planet, 
and  to  those  of  their  other  deities.  It  is  said  in  Hosea,  chap.  2, 
verse  11,  in  speaking  of  the  Jewish  nation,  "  And  I  will  cause  all 
her  mirth  to  cease,  her  feast-days,  her  neio-moons,  and  her  sab- 
baths, and  all  her  solemn  feasts."  Nobody  will  be  so  foolish  as 
to  contend  that  the  sabbaths  here  spoken  of  are  Mosaic  sabbaths. 
The  construction  of  the  verse  implies  they  are  lunar  sabbaths,  or 
sabbaths  of  the  moon.  It  ought  als.o  to  be  observed  that  Hosea 
lived  in  the  time  of  Ahaz  and  Hezekiah,  about  seventy  years  before 
the  time  of  Josiah,  when  the  law  called  the  law  of  Moses  is  said 
to  have  been  found  ;  and,  consequently,  the,  sabbaths  that  Hosea 
speaks  of  are  sabbaths  of  the  Idolatry. 

When  those  priestly  reformers,  (impostors  I  should  call  them,) 
Hilkiah,  Ezra,  and  Nehemiah,  began  to  produce  books  under  the 
name  of  the  books  of  Moses,  they  found  the  word  sabbath  in  use  : 
and  as  to  the  period  of  seven  days,  it  is,  like  numbering  arithmeti- 
cally by  tens,  from  time  immemorial.  But  having  found  them  in 
use,  they  continued  to  make  them  serve  to  the  support  of  their 
new  imposition.  They  trumped  up  a  story  of  the  creation  being 
made  in  six  days,  and  of  the  Creator  resting  on  the  seventh,  to  suit 
with  the  lunar  and  chronological  period  of  seven  days  ;  and  they 
manufactured  a  commandment  to  agree  with  both.  Impostors 
always  work  in  this  manner.  They  put  fables  for  originals,  and 
causes  for  effects. 

There  is  scarcely  any  part  of  science,  or  any  thing  in  nature, 
which  those  impostors  and  blasphemers  of  science,  called  priests, 
as  well  Christians  as  Jews,  have  not,  at  some  time  or  other,  per- 
verted, or  sought  to  pervert  to  the  purpose  of  superstition  and  false- 
hood. Every  thing  wonderful  in  appearance,  has  been  ascribed 
to  angels,  to  devils,  or  to  saints.  Every  thing  ancient  has  some 
legendary  tale  annexed  to  it.  The  common  opperations  of  nature 
have  not  escaped  their  practice  of  corrupting  every  thing. 


296  REPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP 

FUTURE  STATE. 

The  idea  of  a  future  state  was  an  universal  idea  to  all  nations 
except  the  Jews.  At  the  time  and  long  before  Jesus  Christ  and 
the  men  called  his  disciples  were  born,  it  had  been  sublimely 
treated  of  by  Cicero  in  his  book  on  old  age,  by  Plato,  Socrates, 
Xenophon,  and  other  of  the  ancient  theologists,  whom  the  abu- 
sive Christian  church  calls  heathen.  Xenophon  represents  the 
elder  Cyrus  speaking  after  this  manner  ; — 

"  Think  not,  my  dearest  children,  that  when  I  depart  from  you, 
1  shall  be  no  more  :  but  remember  that  my  soul,  even  while  I 
lived  among  you,  was  invisible  to  you  ;  yet  by  my  actions  you 
were  sensible  it  existed  in  this  body.  Believe  it  therefore  existing 
still,  though  it  be  still  unseen.  How  quickly  would  the  honors  of 
illustrious  men  perish  after  death,  if  their  souls  performed  nothing 
to  preserve  their  fame  1  For  my  own  part,  I  could  never  think 
that  the  soul,  while  in  a  mortal  body,  lives,  but  when  departed  from 
it  dies  ;  or  that  its  consciousness  is  lost,  when  it  is  discharged 
out  of  an  unconscious  habitation.  But  when  it  is  freed  from  all 
corporeal  alliance,  it  is  then  that  it  truly  exists." 

Since  then  the  idea  of  a  future  existence  was  universal,  it  may 
be  asked,  what  new  doctrine  does  the  New  Testament  contain  1 
I  answer,  that  of  corrupting  the  theory  of  the  ancient  theologists, 
by  annexing  to  it  the  heavy  and  gloomy  doctrine  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body. 

As  to  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  whether  the  same  body  or 
another,  it  is  a  miserable  conceit,  fit  only  to  be  preached  to  man 
as  an  animal.  It  is  not  worthy  to  be  called  doctrine. — Such  an 
idea  never  entered  the  brain  of  any  visionary  but  those  of  the 
Christian  church  ; — yet  it  is  in  this  that  the  novelty  of  the  INew 
Testament  consists.  All  the  other  matters  serve  but  as  props  to 
this,  and  those  props  are  most  wretchedly  put  together. 


MIRACLES. 

The  Christian  church  is  full  of  miracles.  In  one  of  the  churches 
of  Biabant,  they  show  a  number  of  cannon  balls,  which,  they  soy. 


OF    LLANDAFF.  297 

the  virgin  IMary  in  some  former  war,  caught  in  her  muslin  apron 
as  they  came  roaring  out  of  the  cannon's  mouth,  to  prevent  their 
hurting  the  saints  of  her  favourite  army.  She  does  no  such  feats 
now-a-days.  Perhaps  the  reason  is,  that  the  infidels  have  taken 
away  her  muslin  apron.  They  show  also,  between  Montmatre 
and  the  village  of  St.  Dennis,  several  places  where  ihey  say  St. 
Dennis  stopt  with  his  head  in  his  hands  after  it  had  been  cut  off 
at  Montmatre.  The  Protestants  will  call  those  things  lies  ;  and 
where  is  the  proof  that  all  the  other  things  called  miracles  are  not 
as  great  lies  as  those. 

[There  appears  to  be  an  omission  here  in  the  copy.] 

Christ,  say  those  Cabalists,  came  in  the  fulness  of  time.  And 
pray  what  is  the  fulness  of  time"?  The  words  admit  of  no  idea. 
They  are  perfectly  Cabalistical.  Time  is  a  word  invented  to  de- 
scribe to  our  conception  a  greater  or  less  portion  of  eternity. 
It  may  be  a  minute,  a  portion  of  eternity  measured  by  the  vibration 
of  a  pendulum  of  a  certain  length  ; — it  may  be  a  day,  a  year,  a 
hundred,  or  a  thousand  years,  or  any  other  quantity.  Those  por- 
tions are  only  greater  or  less  comparatively. 

The  word  fulness  applies  not  to  any  of  them.  The  idea  of 
fulness  of  time  cannot  be  conceived.  A  woman  with  child  and 
ready  for  delivery,  as  Mary  was  when  Christ  was  born,  may  be 
said  to  have  gone  her  full  time  ;  but  it  is  the  woman  that  is  full, 
not  time. 

It  may  also  be  said  figuratively,  in  certain  cases,  that  the  times 
arc  full  of  events  ;  but  time  itself  is  incapable  of  being  full  of  itself. 
Ye  hypocrites  !  learn  to  speak  intelligible  language. 

It  happened  to  be  a  time  of  peace  when  they  say  Christ  was 
born  ;  and  what  then  ?  There  had  been  many  such  intervals  : 
and  have  been  many  such  since.  Time  was  no  fuller  in  any  of 
them  than  in  the  other.  If  he  were  he  would  be  fuller  now  than 
he  ever  was  before.  If  he  was  full  then  he  must  be  bursting  now. 
But  peace  or  war  have  relation  to  circumstances,  and  not  to 
time ;  and  those  Cabalists  would  be  at  as  much  loss  to  make  out 
any  meaning  to  fulness  of  circumstances,  as  to  fulness  of  time  ; 
and  if  they  could,  it  would  be  fatal  ;  for  fulness  of  circumstances 
would  mean,  when  there  are  no  more  circumstances  to  happen  ; 
and  fulness  of  time  when  there  is  no  more  time  to  follow. 
38 


29S  REPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP 

Christ,  therefore,  like  every  other  person,  was  neither  in  the 
fulness  of  one  nor  the  other. 

But  though  we  cannot  conceive  the  idea  of  fulness  of  time,  be- 
cause we  cannot  have  conception  of  a  time  when  there  shall  be  no 
time  ;  nor  of  fulness  of  circumstances,  because  we  cannot  con 
ceive  a  state  of  existence  to  be  without  circumstances  ;  we  can 
often  see,  after  a  thing  is  past,  if  any  circumstance,  necessary  to 
give  the  utmost  activity  and  success  to  that  thing,  was  wanting  at 
the  time  that  thing  took  place.  If  such  a  circumstance  was  want- 
ing, we  may  be  certain  that  the  thing  which  took  place,  was  not  a 
thing  of  God's  ordaining  ;  whose  work  is  always  perfect,  and  his 
means  perfect  means.  They  tell  us  that  Christ  was  the  Son  of 
God  ;  in  that  case,  he  would  have  known  every  thing ;  and  he 
came  upon  earth  to  make  known  the  will  of  God  to  man  through- 
out the  whole  earth.  If  this  had  been  true,  Christ  would  have 
known  and  would  have  been  furnished  with  all  the  possible  means 
of  doing  it ;  and  would  have  instructed  mankind,  or  at  least  his 
apostles,  in  the  use  of  such  of  the  means  as  they  could  use  them- 
selves to  facilitate  the  accomplishment  of  the  mission  ;  conse- 
quently he  would  have  instructed  them  in  the  art  of  printing,  for 
the  press  is  the  tongue  of  the  world  ;  and  without  which,  his  or 
their  preaching  was  less  than  a  whistle  compared  to  thunder. 
Since,  then,  he  did  not  do  this,  he  had  not  the  means  necessary  to 
the  mission  ;  and  consequently  had  not  the  mission. 

They  tell  us  in  the  book  of  Acts,  chap,  ii,  a  very  stupid  story  of 
the  Apostles'  having  the  gift  of  tongues  ;  and  cloven  tongues  of  fire 
descended  and  sat  upon  each  of  them.  Perhaps  it  was  this  story 
of  cloven  tongues  that  gave  rise  to  the  notion  of  shtting  Jackdaws 
tongues  to  make  them  talk.  Be  that  however  as  it  may,  the  gift 
ot  tongues,  even  if  it  were  true,  would  be  but  of  little  use  without 
the  art  of  printing.  I  can  sit  in  my  chamber,  as  I  do  while  writing 
this,  and  by  the  aid  of  printing,  can  send  the  thoughts  I  am  writing 
through  the  greatest  part  of  Europe,  to  the  East  Indies,  and  over 
all  North  America,  in  a  few  months.  Jesus  Christ  and  his  apos 
ties  could  not  do  this.  They  had  not  the  means,  and  the  want  of 
means  detects  the  pretended  mission. 

There  are  three  modes  of  communication.  Speaking,  writing 
and  printing.  The  first  is  exceedingly  limited.  A  man's  voice 
can  be  heard  but  a  few  yards  of  distance  ;  and  his  person  can  be 
but  in  one  place. 


OF    LLANDAFF.  299 

Writing  is  much  more  extensive  ;  but  the  thing  written  cannot 
be  multiplied  but  at  great  expense,  and  the  multiplication  will  be 
slow  and  incorrect.  Were  there  no  other  means  of  circulating 
what  priests  call  the  word  of  God  (the  Old  and  New  Testament) 
than  by  writing  copies,  those  copies  could  not  be  purchased  at  less 
than  forty  pounds  sterling  each ;  consequently,  but  few  people 
could  purchase^  them,  while  the  writers  could  scarcely  obtain  a 
liveUhood  by  it.  But  the  art  of  printing  changes  all  the  cases,  and 
opens  a  scene  as  vast  as  the  world.  It  gives  to  man  a  sort  of 
divine  attribute.  It  gives  to  him  mental  omnipresence.  He  can 
be  every  where  and  at  the  same  instant ;  for  wherever  he  is  read 
he  is  mentally  there. 

The  case  applies  not  only  against  the  pretended  mission  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles,  but  against  every  thing  that  priests  call 
the  word  of  God,  and  against  all  those  who  pretend  to  deliver  it ; 
for  had  God  eyer  delivered  any  verbal  word,  he  would  have  taught 
the  means  of  communicating  it.  The  one  without  the  other  is 
inconsistent  with  the  wisdom  we  conceive  of  the  Creator. 

The  third  chapter  of  Genesis,  verse  21,  tells  us  that  God  made 
coats  of  skins  and  cloathed  Adam  and  Eve.  It  was  infinitely 
more  important  that  man  should  be  taught  the  art  of  printing,  than 
that  Adam  should  be  taught  to  make  a  pair  of  leather  breeches,  or 
his  wife  a  petticoat. 

There  is  another  matter,  equally  striking  and  important,  that 
connects  itself  with  those  observations  against  this  pretended  word 
of  God,  this  manufactured  book,  called  Revealed  Relio-ion. 

We  know  that  whatever  is  of  God's  doing  is  unalterable  by  man 
beyond  the  laws  which  the  Creator  has  ordained.  We  cannot 
make  a  tree  grow  with  the  root  in  the  air  and  the  fruit  in  the  ground ; 
we  cannot  make  iron  into  gold  nor  gold  into  iron  ;  we  cannot 
make  rays  of  light  shine  forth  rays  of  darkness,  nor  darkness  shine 
forth  light.  If  there  were  such  a  thing,  as  a  word  of  God,  it  would 
possess  the  same  properties  which  all  his  other  works  do.  It  would 
resist  destructive  alteration.  But  we  see  that  the  book  which 
they  call  the  word  of  God  has  not  this  property.  That  book  says. 
Genesis  chap.  1,  verse  27,  "  jSo  God  created  man  in  his  own 
image ;"  but  the  printer  can  make  it  say,  So  man  created  God  in 
his  own  image.  The  words  are  passive  to  every  transposition  of 
them,  or  can  be  annihilated  and  others  put  in  their  places.  This 
Is  not  the  case  with  any  thing  that  is  of  God's  doing  ;  and,  there- 


300  REPLY    TO    THE    BISHOP    OF    LLANDAFF. 

fore,  this  book,  called  the  word  of  God,  tried  by  the  same  universal 
rule  which  every  other  of  God's  works  within  our  reach  can  be 
tried  by,  proves  itself  to  be  a  forgery. 

The  bishop  says,  that  "  miracles  are  proper  proofs  of  a  divine 
mission."  Admitted.  But  we  know  that  men,  and  especially 
priests,  can  tell  lies  and  call  them  miracles.  It  is  therefore  neces- 
sary, that  the  thing  called  a  miracle  be  proved  to  be  true,  and  also 
to  be  miraculous ;  before  it  can  be  admitted  as  proof  of  the  thing 
called  revelation. 

The  bishop  must  be  a  bad  logician  not  to  know  that  one  doubt- 
ful thing  cannot  be  admitted  as  proof  that  another  doubtful  thing 
is  true.  It  would  be  like  attempting  to  prove  a  liar  not  to  be  a 
liar,  by  the  evidence  of  another,  who  is  as  great  a  liar  as  himself. 

Though  Jesus  Christ,  by  being  ignorant  of  the  art  of  prmting, 
shows  he  had  not  the  means  necessary  to  a  divine  mission,  and 
consequently  had  no  such  mission  ;  it  does  not  follow  that  if  he 
had  known  that  art,  the  divinity  of  what  they  call  his  mission  would 
be  proved  thereby,  any  more  than  it  proved  the  divinity  of  the  man 
who  invented  printing.  Something,  therefore,  beyond  printing, 
even  if  he  had  known  it,  was  necessary  as  a  miracle,  to  have 
proved  that  what  he  delivered  was  the  word  of  God  ;  and  this  was 
that  the  book  in  which  that  word  should  be  contained,  which  is 
now  called  the  Old  and  Xew  Testament,  should  possess  the  mirac- 
ulous property,  distinct  from  all  human  books,  of  resisting  altera- 
tion. This  would  be  not  only  a  miracle,  but  an  ever  existing  and 
universal  miracle ;  whereas,  those  which  they  tell  us  of,  even  if 
they  had  been  true,  were  momentary  and  local ;  they  would  leave  no 
trace  behind,  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  years,  of  having  ever  existed  ; 
but  this  would  prove,  in  all  ages  and  in  all  places,  the  book  to  be 
divine  and  not  human  ;  as  effectually,  and  as  conveniently,  as 
aquafortis  proves  gold  to  be  gold  by  not  being  capable  of  acting 
upon  it ;  and  detects  all  other  metals  and  all  counterfeit  composi- 
tion, by  dissolving  them.  Since  then  the  only  miracle  capable  of 
every  proof  is  wanting,  and  which  every  thing  that  is  of  a  divine 
origin  possesses  ;  all  the  tales  of  miracles  with  which  the  Old  and 
New  Testament  are  filled,  are  fit  only  for  impostors  to  preach  and 
fools  to  believe. 


ORIGIN  OF  FREE-MASONRY 


PREFACE  BY  THE  EDITOR. 

This  tract  is  a  chapter  belonging  to  the  third  part  of  the  Age  of 
Reason,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  references  made  in  it  to  preced- 
;'Hg  articles,  as  forming  a  part  of  the  same  work.  It  was  culled 
from  the  writings  of  Mr.  Paine,  after  his  death,  and  published  in  a 
mutilated  state,  by  Mrs.  Bonneville,  his  executrix.  Passages  hav- 
ino-  a  reference  to  the  Christian  religion  she  erased,  with  a  view, 
no  doubt,  of  accommodating  the  work  to  the  prejudices  of  bigotry, 
These,  however,  have  been  restored  from  the  original  manuscript, 
excepting  a  few  lines  which  were  rendered  illegible. 

The  masonic  society  had  committed  nothing  to  print  until  the 
year  1722,  when  Doctor  Anderson's  book  of  constitutions,  &c.  was 
ordered  by  the  Grand  Lodge  to  be  printed.  Since  that  time  the 
masons  have  published  many  works  respecting  the  fraternity,  all  of 
which,  through  design  or  want  of  information,  tend  to  obscure 
and  embarrass  the  subject ;  and  as  the  society  had  adopted  the 
custom  of  the  priests  of  the  ancient  Britons,  called  Druids,  to  keep 
their  proceedings  an  entire  secret,  mankind  in  general,  including 
the  greater  portion  of  the  brethren  themselves,  have  remained  in 
utter  ignorance  in  regard  to  its  establishment  and  original  intention. 
Tarious  speculations  therefore  continue  to  be  made  respecting  the 
origin  of  the  society,  and  its  views  at  the  time  of  its  formation  ; 
and  Mr.  Paine  among  the  rest,  with  all  his  sagacity,  has  suffered 
himself  to  be  most  egregiously  deceived  by  such  writings  of  the 
masons  as  had  fallen  into  his  hands.  These  writers,  in  giving  an 
account  of  the  society,  take  up  the  history  of  architecture  as  far 
back  as  any  record  of  it  has  survived  the  wreck  of  time.  WTiere- 
ever  they  can  trace  in  history,  whether  true  or  fabulous,  any  ac- 
count of  noble  and  grand  structures,  they  presumptuously  pro- 
nounce them  to  have  been  raised  by  their  society.  The  pyramids 
of  Egypt,  the  tower  of  Babel,  whose  existence  is  doubted,  and  So- 
lomon's temple,  about  which  there  has  probably  been  much  lying, 


302  PREFACE. 

are  all  claimed  by  them.  For  what  is  this  ridiculous  parade,  but 
to  make  the  uninitiated,  as  well  as  their  own  members,  few  of  whom 
know  any  thing  about  it,  wonder  at  the  astonishing  antiquity  of 
the  institution  ?    Would  not  the  advice  of  Pope  apply  in  this  case  ? 

"  Go !  and  pretend  your  family  is  young, 
Nor  own  your  fathers  have  been  fools  so  long." 

If  the  antiquity  of  a  sect  or  society  proved  its  utility,  or  that  it 
was  founded  in  correct  principles ;  the  religion  taught  by  the  an- 
cient Egptians  priests,  or  Judaism,  ought  to  be  preferred  to  Chris- 
tianity. 

There  is  no  possible  use  to  be  derived  from  deception  upon 
this  subject.  The  masonic  society  is  undoubtedly  very  ancient ; 
having  coTnmenced,  in  the  city  of  York,  in  England,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  tenth  century  of  the  Christian  era  ;  and  from  thence  it 
spread  into  other  parts  of  Europe.  It  was  formed  by  men  who 
had  some  knowledge  of  rude  architecture,  such  as  it  was  at  that 
day,  and  working  masons  ;  and  had  no  other  view  than  improve- 
ment in  the  art  or  craft  of  masonry.  Which  their  writers  dignify 
with  the  title  o^roijal  craft,  because  some  of  their  Kings  have  con- 
descended to  beqome  members  of  the  society,  for  the  purpose,  no 
doubt,  of  flattering  their  subjects  to  persevere  in  improvements  in 
the  art  of  building  ;  which  was  useful  to  them,  as  they  always 
stand  in  need  of  palaces,  castles,  and  churches.  The  society  is 
composed  of  free  men,  none  others  are  admitted,  hence  the  term, 
free  masons.  At  first  there  vvere  but  three  degrees,  apprentice  ; 
fellow-craft,  that  is,  one  who  had  served  an  apprenticeship,  and 
was  entitled  to  wages  as  a  journeyman  ;  and  master-mason.  The 
latter  degree  entitled  its  possessor  to  contract  for  building  on  his 
own  account.  It  was  not  until  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  that  any  one,  according  to  the  regulations  of  the  society, 
could  be  admitted  a  member,  who  did  not  labour  at  the  trade  of 
masonry,  or  knew  something  of  architecture  ;  although,  perhaps, 
through  favour,  some  were  smuggled  in  who  had  very  little  or  no 
know-ledge  of  that  art.* 

*  The  author  of  this  Preface,  although  he  has  thrown  considerable  light  up- 
on the  suliject,  has  been  himself  deceived  by  masonic  writers  in  respect  to  the 
ori^n  of  the  existing  society  of  Freemasons  ;  which  is  entirely  speculative,  ana 
was  instituted  at  the  time  when,  he  says,  persons  not  being  masons  by  trade 
were  first  admitted  as  members,  viz.  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  centuiy. 
Late  writers  have  shown,  that  the  first  Lodge  ever  estabhshed  upon  the  exist- 


PREFACE.  303 

As  to  the  mysteries  of  the  craft,  so  much  talked  of,  they  are  of 
the  same  nature  as  those  of  carpentry,  or  any  other  trade  ;  and 
consist  in  a  knowledge  of  the  art  of  masonry  ;  which  was  thought 
much  more  of  at  the  time  the  society  was  instituted,  than  at  the 
present  day.  The  trifling  rights  and  ceremonies,  which  the  ma- 
sons borrowed  from  the  ancient  Druids,  are  mere  allegories,  and 
symbolical  signs  and  words,  serving  as  a  medium  of  secrecy,  by 
means  of  which  the  members  of  the  society  are  enabled  to  recog- 
nize each  other. 

There  is  no  more  propriety  in  prefixing  the  term  free  to  mason- 
ry, than  there  is  to  carpentry,  smithery,  or  to  any.  other  trade. 
It  is  inapplicable  to  any  art  or  trade  ;  although  it  may  be  applied  to 
the  professors  of  it.  At  the  time  the  free  masons'  society  was  first 
instituted  in  England  there  were  in  that  kingdom  both  free  men 
and  slaves  in  all  the  mechanical  trades  then  in  use.  Doctor  Hen- 
ry, in  his  history  of  Great  Britain,  giving  an  account  of  the  differ- 
ent ranks  of  people,  &c.  from  449  to  1066,  after  stating  that 
slavery  had  been  in  some  degree  meliorated,  observes,  "  But  after 
all  these  mitigations  of  the  severities  of  slavery,  the  yoke  of  servi- 
tude was  still  very  heavy,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  labourers, 
mechanics,  and  common  people,  groaned  under  that  yoke  at  the 
conclusion  of  this  period." 

All  the  writers  upon  this  subject,  who  are  members  of  the  so- 
ciety, endeavour  to  conceal  the  origin  and  object  of  it.  For  what 
reason  it  is  dificult  to  imagine,  except  it  be  to  keep  the  world  in 
amazement  respecting  it.  Or,  perhaps,  their  pride  induces  them 
to  contemn  the  humble,  though  laudable  and  useful  purposes  for 
which  the  institution  was  formed.  Enough,  however,  has  appeared 
in  the  old  records  which  they  have  published  to  establish  the  view 
I  have  taken  of  it,  and.  which,  when  I  commenced  this  preface,  I 
intended  to  have  inserted  ;  but  finding  they  would  extend  to  too 

in^  speculative  pinn,  was  formed  in  London,  in  1717;  and  that  a  similar  society 
■was  formed  in  Scotland,  in  1736.  These  two  lodges  soon  began  to  quarrel 
about  precedency  ;  each  endeavouring  to  prove  its  priority  by  cxistin";  records 
of  the  humble  mechanical  societies  of  labouring  masons,  which  had  "been  es- 
tablished in  both  kingdoms  many  centuries  before.  The  Yorkitcs,  in  England, 
it  is  believed,  produced  the  oldest  documents  :  both  societies,  however,  continu- 
ed to  grant  dispensations  for  forming  lodges  in  foreign  countries. 

From  these  two  sources  all  the  "Freemason  societies,  upon  the  pi-escnt  es- 
tablishment, owe  their  origin.  Nothing  of  the  kind  ever  existed  in  Europe,  or 
any  other  quarter  of  the  world,  previously  to  1717.  Although  ostensibly  found- 
ed upon  a  society  of  real  working  masons,  nothing  is  now  taught  in  it,  nOr  ever 
has  been,  of  that  art,  or  any  other  art  or  science. — Ed. 


304  PREFACE. 

great  a  length,  I  am  under  the  necessity  of  omitting  them.  I  will, 
however,  make  a  few  extracts  from  the  old  charges  of  the  Free  and 
Accepted  Masons,  collected  from  their  old  records,  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  Grand  Master,  by  James  Anderson,  D.  D.  Ap- 
proved by  the  grand  Lodge,  and  ordered  to  be  printed  in  the  first 
edition  of  the  book  of  constitutions,  on  March  25,  1722. 

"  Concerning  God  and  religion.  A  mason  is  obliged,  by  his 
tenure,  to  obey  the  moral  law ;  and  if  he  rightly  understands  the 
art,  he  will  never  be  a  stupid  atheist,  nor  an  irreligious  libertine. 
But  though  in  ancient  times  masons  were  charged  in  every  coun- 
try to  be  of  the  religion  of  that  country  or  nation,  whatever  it  was, 
yet  it  is  now  thought  more  expedient  only  to  oblige  them  to  that 
religion  in  which  all  men  agree,  leaving  their  particular  opinions 
to  themselves  ;  that  is,  to  be  good  men  and  true,  or  men  of  honor 
and  honesty,  by  whatever  denominations  or  persuasions  they  may 
be  distinguished  ;  whereby  masonry  becomes  the  centre  of  union, 
and  the  means  of  conciliating  true  friendship  among  persons,  that 
must  have  remained  at  a  perpetual  distance.* 

"  Of  lodges.  A  lodge  is  a  place  where  masons  assemble  and 
vvOrk  :  hence  that  assembly,  or  duly  organized  society  of  masons, 
is  called  a  lodge  ;  and  every  brother  ought  to  belong  to  one,  and 
to  be  subject  to  its  By-Laws  and  the  general  regulations. 

"  The  persons  admitted  members  of  a  lodge,  must  be  good  and 
true  men,  free-born,  and  of  mature  and  discreet  age,  no  bond- 
men, no  women,  no  immoral  or  scandalous  men,  but  of  good 
report. 

"  Of  apprentices.  Candidates  may  know,  that  no  master  should 
take  an  apprentice,  unless  he  has  sufficient  employment  for  him, 
and  unless  he  be  a  perfect  youth,  having  no  maim  or  defect  in  his 
body,  that  may  render  him  incapable  of  learning  the  art,  of  serv- 
ing his  master's  lord,  and  of  being  made  a  brother,  and  then  a 
fellow-craft  in  due  time,  even  after  he  has  served  such  a  term  of 


*  "William  Preston,  past  master  of  the  lodge  of  antiquity,  in  his  illustrations 
of  masonry,  makes  the  following  remarks  on  the  same  subject.  "  The  spirit 
of  the  fulminating  priest  will  be  tamed ;  and  amoral  brother,  though  of  a  dif- 
ferent persuasion,  engage  his  esteem ;  for  mutual  toleration  in  religious  opin- 
ions is  one  of  the  most  distinguishhig  and  valuable  characteristics  of  the  craft. 
As  all  religions  teach  morality,  if  a  brother  be  found  to  act  the  part  of  a  truly 
honest  man,  his  private  speculative  opinions  are  left  to  God  and  himself.  Thus 
through  the  influence  of  masonry,  wliich  is  reconcilable  to  the  best  policy,  all 
those  disputes  which  unbitter  life,  and  sour  the  tempers  of  men,  are  avoided." 


PREFACE.  305 

years,  as  the  custom  of  the  country  directs  ;  and  that  he  should 
be  descended  of  honest  parents. 

*'  Of  the  management  of  the  craft  in  working.  All  masons  shall 
work  honestly  on  working  days,  that  they  may  live  creditably  on 
holy  days  ;  and  the  time  appointed  by  the  law  of  the  land,  or  con- 
firmed by  custom,  shall  be  observed. 

"  The  most  expert  of  the  fellow-craftmen  shall  be  chosen,  or 
appointed  the  master  or  overseer  of  the  lord's  work  ;  who  is  to 
be  called  master  by  those  that  work  under  him.  The  craftsmen 
are  to  avoid  all  ill  language,  and  to  call  each  other  by  no  disoblig- 
ing name,  but  brother  or  fellow ;  and  to  behave  themselves  cour- 
teously within  and  without  the  lodge. 

"  The  master,  knowing  himself  to  be  able  of  cunnmg,  shall  un- 
dertake the  lord's  work  as  reasonably  as  possible,  and  truly  dis- 
pend  his  goods  as  if  they  were  his  own  ;  nor  give  more  wages  to 
any  brother  or  apprentice,  than  he  really  may  deserve. 

"  Both  the  master  and  the  masons  receiving  their  wages  justly, 
shall  be  faithful  to  the  lord,  and  honestly  finish  their  work,  whe- 
ther task  or  journey ;  nor  put  the  work  to  task  that  hath  been 
accustomed  to  journey. 

"  None  shall  discover  envy  at  the  prosperity  of  a  brother,  nor 
supplant  him,  or  put  him  out  of  his  work,  if  he  be  capable  to 
finish  the  same  ;  for  no  man  can  finish  another's  work  so  much  to 
the  lord's  profit,  unless  he  be  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  de- 
signs and  draughts  of  him  that  began  it. 

"  When  a  fellow-craftsman  is  chosen  warden  of  the  work  under 
the  master,  he  shall  be  true  both  to  master  and  fellows,  shall  care- 
fully oversee  the  work  in  the  master's  absence,  to  the  lord's  profit ; 
and  his  brethren  shall  obey  him. 

"  All  masons  employed,  shall  meekly  receive  their  wages  with- 
out murmuring  or  mutiny,  and  not  desert  the  master  till  the  work  is 
finished. 

"  A  younger  brother  shall  be  instructed  in  working,  to  prevent 
spoiling  the  materials  for  want  of  judgment,  and  for  increasing 
and  continuing  of  brotherly  love. 

"  All  the  tools  used  in  working  shall  be  approved  by  the  Grand 
Lodge. 

"No  labourer  shall  be  employed  in  the  proper  work  of  masonry  ; 
nor  shall  Free  Masons  work  with  those  that  are  not  Free,  without 
39 


306  PREFACE. 

an  urgent  necessity  ;  nor  shall  they  teach  labourers  and  unaccept- 
ed masons,  as  they  should  teach  a  brother  or  fellow. 

"  Of  behaviour  in  the  Lodge  ivhile  constituted.  If  any  complaint 
be  brought,  the  brother  found  guilty  shall  stand  to  the  award  and 
determination  of  the  lodge,  who  are  the  proper  and  competent 
judges  of  all  such  controversies,  (unless  you  carry  it  by  appeal  to 
the  Grand  Lodge,)  and  to  whom  they  ought  to  be  referred,  unless 
a  lord's  work  be  hindered  the  mean  while,  in  which  case  a  par- 
ticular reference  may  be  made  ;  but  you  must  never  go  to  law 
about  what  concerneth  masonry,  without  an  absolute  necessity  ap- 
parent to  the  lodge. 

"  P^'iaviour  in presejice  of  str.rngers  not  masons.  You  shall  be 
cautious  in  your  words  and  carriage,  that  the  most  penetrating 
stranger  shaii  not  be  able  to  discover  or  find  out  wnat  is  not  pro- 
per to  be  iniimated;  and  sometimes  you  shaii  divert  a  discourse, 
and  manage  it  prudently  for  the  honour  of  the  worshipful  fra- 
ternity. 

^'■Behaviour  at  home,  and  in  your  neighbourhood.  You  are  to  act 
as  becomes  a  moral  and  wise  man  ;  particularly,  not  to  let  your 
family,  friends,  and  neighbours  know  the  concerns  of  trje  Ledge, 
&c.,  but  wisely  to  consult  your  own  honour,  and  that  of  the  an- 
cient brotherhood.  You  must  also  consult  your  health,  by  not 
continuing  together  too  late,  or  too  long  from  home,  after  lodge 
hours  are  past,  ana  oy  avoiding  of  gluttony  and  drunkenness  that 
your  families  be  not  neglected  or  injured,  nor  you  disabled  from 
working. 

"  Behaviour  towards  a  strange  brother.  You  are  cautiously  to 
examine  him,  in  such  a  method  as  prudence  shall  direct  you,  that 
you  may  not  be  imposed  upon  by  an  ignorant  false  pretender, 
whom  you  are  to  reject  with  contempt  and  derision,  and  beware  of 
giving  him  any  hints  of  knowledge. 

"  But  if  you  discover  him  to  be  a  true  and  genuine  brother,  you 
are  to  respect  him  accordingly ;  and  if  he  is  in  want,  you  must 
relieve  him  if  you  can,  or  else  direct  him  how  he  may  be  relieved; 
you  must  employ  him  some  days,  or  else  recommend  him  to  be 
employed.  But  you  are  not  charged  to  do  beyond  your  ability, 
only  to  prefer  a  poor  brother  that  is  a  good  man  and  true,  oefore 
any  other  poor  people  in  the  same  circumstances." 

All  the  old  charges  have  a  reference  to  Free  Masons  in  the  ca 
pacity  of  labourers,  and  as  "  good  men  and  true,''^  and,  no  doubt, 


PREFACE.  307 

had  a  beneficial  effect.  But  the  substance  has  been  lost  sight  of, 
and  the  skeleton,  or  shadow,  only  retained.  The  mummery  of4he 
Druidical  priests,  with  infinite  additions  of  the  same  cast,  is  cher- 
ished as  the  desideratum  of  knowledge,  calculated  to  complete  the 
sum'of  human  happiness  and  perfection.  The  corruptions  of  the 
Society  seem  to  have  kept  pace  with  those  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion. It  is  at  this  day  as  difterent  to  what  it  was,  as  the  Christian- 
ity now  professed  is  to  the  religion  taught  by  Jesus  Christ.  In  his 
time  there  were  no  Doctors  of  Divinity — Right  Reverend  Fathers 
in  God,  nor  their  Holinesses  the  Popes.  Neither  were  there  in. 
the  Society  of  Free  Masons,  at  its  commencement,  any  Grand 
Secretaries — Grand  Treasurers — Knights  of  Malta — Captain 
Generals — Generalissamos — Most  Excellent  Scribes — Most  Ex- 
cellent High  Priests— Most  Excellent  Kings,  &c.  &c.*  To 
which  might  now,  perhaps,  very  appropriately  be  added,  Grand 
bottle  holder  and  cork  drawer. 

The  admission  into  the  society  of  kings,  princes,  noblemen, 
bishops,  and  doctors  in  divinity,  as  patrons  of  the  institution,  has 
probably  been  the  cause  of  so  great  change.  These  men,  it  may 
be  presumed,  brought  much  of  their  consequence  with  them  into 
the  Lodge,  and  were,  no  doubt,  addressed  in  a  manner  suitable 
to  their  supposed  dignity  in  other  stations.  At  any  rate,  by  what- 
ever means  these  high  sounding  titles  may  have  been  introduced, 
they  appear  ridiculous  when  applied  to  members  of  an  institution 
founded  for  such  purpose  as  that  of  the  Masonic  Society,  and 
ought  to  be  abandoned. 

It  is  difficult,  at  this  time,  for  members  of  the  Society,  or  any 
body  else,  to  say  what  benefit  is  to  be  derived  from  the  magical 
arts  pretended  to  be  practised  in  the  Lodges.  The  mystic  rites 
and  ceremonies  of  the  Egyptian  priests,  handed  down  to  the  Druids 
by  Pythagoras  ;  the  miraculous  stories  related  of  the  ancient 
Jews  ;  and  the  legendary  tales  of  Roman  Catholic  superstition, 
fruitful  sourties  of  imposition,  have  been  ransacked  to  find  subjects 
for  new  degrees  to  be  tacked  to  the  Society  of  Free  Maso7is.  I 
have  in  my  possession  a  list  of  forty-three  degrees  in  what  is 
called  Free  Masonry  ;  one  of  which  is  the  order  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

*  This  is  true,  if  reference  be  made  to  what  it  was,  when  under  the  manage- 
ment of  the  real  masons,  the  operatives  previously  to  the  year  1717. 


308  PREFACE. 

If,  as  here  represented,  all  this  mystical  nonsense  has  been  ob- 
trftded  into  the  Society,  it  may  be  asked,  why  do  men  of  sense 
attach  themselves  to  it  ?  I  answer,  many  retire  from  it  after  taking 
two  or  three  degrees  ;  some  have  political  or  other  sinister  views 
which  retain  them  ;  and,  furthermore,  most  men  are  fond  of  dis- 
tinction in  some  wiy.  Any  man,  of  common  understanding,  by 
being  punctual  at  the  meetings,  and  paying  strict  attention  to  the 
ceremonies,  may  become  a  Warden,  that  is,  overseer,  or  some 
other  grand  office,  even  that  of  JVTosi  Worshipful  Grand  Master ; 
and  in  the  mean  time,  keep  mounting  up  the  ladder,  from  mystery 
to  mystery,  till  he  arrives  at  the  forty-third  degree  of  perfection : 
which,  however,  in  my  opinion,  cannot  be  of  the  least  possible  ad- 
vantage to  him  here  or  hereafter,  any  further  than  the  consequenco 
it  may  give  him.  As  to  those  who  serve  in  the  ranks,  they  probably 
consider  themselves  sufficiently  honored  by  being  hailed  as  broth 
ers  by  those  whom  they  think  their  superiors,  and  permitted  to 
parade  the  streets  with  ribbands  and  white  aprons,  to  the  amaze- 
ment of  the  profane  vulgar. 

Notwithstanding  the  remarks  I  have  made,  I  am  by  no  means 
inimical  to  the  Masonic  Society;  for  I  believe  it  to  be  a  liberal, 
social  institution,  in  which  persons  of  the  most  opposite  opinions 
on  religious  and  political  subjects  associate  in  the  utmost  harmony. 
By  these  friendly  meetings,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  that  party  spirit, 
both  in  politics  and  religion,  loses  much  of  its  asperity  among  the 
members  ;  and  that  those,  who  otherwise  might  have  entertained 
hostile  feelings  towards  each  other,  become  friends.  In  this  point 
of  view,  the  Society  deserves  to  be  held  in  the  highest  estimation  ; 
for  however  laudable  zeal  may  be  in  a  just  cause,  when  carried  to 
excess,  so  as  to  excite  personal  ill-will  towards  others  of  contrary 
opinions,  it  degenerates  into  its  kindred  vice,  leading  to  hatred 
and  persecution.  No  good  reason  can  be  given  why  men  of  the 
same  or  similar  societies  should  entertain  greater  partiality  for  one 
another,  than  for  others  of  their  fellow-men,  any  further  than  their 
merits  when  known  may  deserve  ;  and  to  this  it  is  generally  limit- 
ed among  men  of  sense  :  still,  in  consequence  of  the  obligations 
by  which  Masons  are  bound  to  each  other,  and  a  sort  of  bigotry 
in  many,  this  partiality  has  had  its  good  effects  in  mitigating  the 
evils  of  v/ar;  and,  for  men  who  travel,  a  diploma  from  a  Lodge 
has  passed  as  a  letter  of  recommendation  in  foreign  countries. 


PREFACE.  309 

As  a  charitable  institution,  the  Masonic  Society  ought  to  be 
neld  in  high  consideration.  The  relief  it  grants  to  its  membgrs 
and  their  families  in  distress,  is  very  considerable.  But,  unfortu- 
nately, as  I  am  told,  its  means  are  very  much  exhausted  by  ex- 
penses incurred  for  refreshments  at  the  regular  meetings.  If 
each  member  were  required  to  pay  for  what  he  consumes  at  those 
meetings,  the  society,  in  consequence  of  its  numbers,  by  its  in- 
come arising  from  annual  contributions,  fees  of  initiation,  &c., 
would  be  enabled  to  do  more  in  charity,  perhaps,  than  any  private 
society  in  existence. 

As  to  what  Mr.  Paine  has  said  upon  this  abstruse  subject,  I  take 
the  liberty  of  observing,  that,  in  my  opinion,  notwithstanding  the 
talents  he  has  bestowed  upon  it,  and  the  interest  he  has  given  to 
it,  his  remarks,  made  doubtless  in  the  utmost  sincerity,  are  calcu- 
lated to  perplex  and  embarrass  readers  not  conversant  in  these 
matters,  as  much  as  those  of  any  other  author,  whose  design  was 
to  involve  it  in  unintelligible  mystery. 

"In  thoughts  more  elevate,  he  reasoned  high, 
But  found  no  end,  in  wand'ring  mazes  lost," 


ORIGIN  OF  FREE-MASONRY. 


It  is  always  understood  that  Free-Masons  have  a  secret  which 
they  carefully  conceal ;  but  from  every  thing  that  can  be  collected 
from  their  own  accounts  of  Masonry,  their  real  secret  is  no  other 
than  their  origin,  which  but  few  of  them  understand  ;  and  those 
who  do,  envelope  it  in  mystery. 

The  Society  of  Masons  are  distinguished  into  three  classes  or 
degrees.  1st.  The  entered  apprentice.  2d.  The  Fellow-Craft. 
3d.   The  Master  Mason. 

The  entered  apprentice  knows  but  little  more  of  Masonry,  than 
the  use  of  signs  and  tokens,  and  certain  steps  and  words,  by  which 
Masons  can  recognize  each  other,  without  being  discovered  by 
a  person  who  is  not  a  Mason.  The  fellow-craft  is  not  much  bet- 
ter instructed  in  Masonry,  than  the  entered  apprentice.  It  is 
only  in  the  Master  Mason's  lodge,  that  whatever  knowledge  re- 
mains of  the  origin  of  Masonry  is  preserved  and  concealed. 

In  1730,  Samuel  Pritchard,  member  of  a  constituted  lodge  in 
England,  published  a  treatise  entitled  Masonry  Dissected ;  and 
made  oath  before  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  that  it  was  a  true 
copy. 

"  Samuel  Pritchard  maketh  oath  that  the  copy  hereunto  annex- 
ed is  a  true  and  genuine  copy  in  every  particular." 

In  his  work  he  has  given  the  catechism,  or  examination,  in 
question  and  answer,  of  the  apprentices,  the  fellow-craft,  and  the 
Master  Mason.  There  was  no  difficulty  in  doing  this,  as  it  is 
mere  form. 

In  his  introduction  he  says,  "  the  original  institution  of  Mason- 
ry consisted  in  the  foundation  of  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences,  but 


ORIGIN    OF    FREE-MASONRY.  311 

more  especially  in  Geometry,  for  at  the  building  of  the  tower  of 
Bable,  the  art  and  mystery  of  Masonry  was  first  introduced,  and 
from  thence  handed  down  by  Euclid,  a  worthy  and  excellent  ma- 
thcmatic'Tin  of  the  Egyptians  ;  and  he  communicated  it  to  Hiram, 
the  M^  Mason  concerned  in  building  Solomon's  Temple  in 
Jerdsa.o.ii. 

Besides  the  absurdity  of  deriving  Masonry  from  the  building  of 
Babel,  where,  according  to  the  story,  the  confusion  of  languages 
prevented  the  builders  understanding  each  other,  and  consequent- 
ly of  communicating  any  knowledge  they  had  there,  is  a  glaring 
contradiction  in  point  of  chronology  in  the  account  he  gives. 

Solomon's  Temple  was  built  and  dedicated  1004  years  before 
the  Christian  era  ;  and  Euclid,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  tables  of 
chronology,  lived  277  years  before  the  same  era.  It  was  there- 
fore impossible  that  Euclid  could  communicate  any  thing  to 
Hiram,  since  Euclid  did  not  live  till  700  years  after  the  time  of 
Hiram. 

In  1783,  Captain  George  Smith,  inspector  of  the  Royal  Artil- 
lery Academy  at  "Woolwich,  in  England,  and  Provincial  Grand 
Master  of  Masonry  for  the  county  of  Kent,  published  a  treatise 
entitled,  The  Use  and  Abuse  of  Free-Masonry. 

In  his  chapter  of  the  antiquity  of  Masonry,  he  makes  it  to  be  co- 
eval with  creation.  "  \Mien,"  says  he,  "  the  sovereign  architect 
raised  on  Masonic  principles  the  beauteous  globe,  and  commanded 
that  master  science.  Geometry,  to  lay  the  planetary  world,  and  to 
regulate  by  its  laws  the  whole  stupendous  system  in  just  unerring 
proportion,  rolling  round  the  central  sun." 

"  But,"  continues  he,  "  I  am  not  at  liberty  publicly  to  undraw 
the  curtain,  and  thereby  to  descant  on  this  head  ;  it  is  sacred,  and 
will  ever  remain  so  ;  those  who  are  honoured  with  the  trust  will 
not  reveal  it,  and  those  who  are  ignorant  of  it  cannot  betray  it." 
By  this  last  part  of  the  phrase,  Smith  means  the  two  inferior  class- 
es, the  fellow-craft  and  the  entered  apprentice,  for  he  says,  in  the 
next  page  of  his  work,  "  It  is  not  every  one  that  is  barely  initiated 
into  Free-Masonry  that  is  entrusted  with  all  the  mysteries  thereto 
belonging;  they  are  not  attainable  as  things  of  course,  nor  by  every 
capacity." 

The  learned,  but  unfortunate  Doctor  Dodd,  Grand  Chaplain  of 
Masonry,  in  his  oration  at  the  dedication  of  Free-Mason's-Hall, 
London,  traces  Masonry  through  a  variety  of  stages.     Masons, 


312  ORIGIN    OP    FREE-MASONRV. 

say.3  he,  are  well  informed  from  their  own  private  and  interior  re- 
cords, that  the  building  of  Solomon's  Temple  is  an  important  era, 
from  whence  they  derive  many  mysteries  of  their  art.  "  Now 
(says  he,)  be  it  remembered  that  this  great  event  took  place  above 
1000  years  before  the  Christian  era,  and  consequently  more  than 
a  century  before  Homer,  the  first  of  the  Grecian  Poets,  wrote  ; 
and  above  five  centuries  before  Pythagoras  brought  from  the  east 
his  sublime  system  of  truly  masonic  instruction  to  illuminate  our 
western  world. 

"  But,  remote  as  this  period  is,  we  date  not  from  thence  the 
commencement  of  our  art.  For  though  it  might  owe  to  the  wise 
and  glorious  King  of  Israel,  some  of  its  many  mystic  forms  and 
hieroglyphic  ceremonies,  yet  certainly  the  art  itself  is  coeval  with 
man,  the  great  subject  of  it. 

"  We  trace,"  continues  he,  "  its  footsteps  in  the  most  distant, 
the  most  remote  ages  and  nations  of  the  world.  We  find  it  amongst 
the  first  and  most  celebrated  civil  izers  of  the  East.  We  deduce  it 
regularly  from  the  first  astronomers  on  the  plains  of  Chaldea,  to 
the  wise  and  mystic  kings  and  priests  of  Egypt,  the  sages  of 
Greece,  and  the  philosophers  of  Rome." 

From  these  reports  and  declarations  of  Masons  of  the  highest 
order  in  the  institution,  we  see  that  Masonry,  without  publicly  de- 
claring so,  lays  claim  to  some  divine  communication  from  the 
Creator,  in  a  manner  different  from,  and  unconnected  with,  the 
book  which  the  Christians  call  the  Bible  ;  and  the  natural  result 
from  this  is,  that  Masonry  is  derived  from  some  very  ancient  re- 
ligion, wholly  independent  of,  and  unconnected  with  that  book. 

To  come  then  at  once  to  the  point,  Masonry  (as  I  shall  show 
from  the  customs,  ceremonies,  hieroglyphics,  and  chronology  of 
Masonry)  is  derived,  and  is  the  remains  of  the  religion  of  the  an- 
cient Druids  ;  who,  like  the  magi  of  Persia  and  the  priests  of 
Heliopolis  in  Egypt,  were  priests  of  the  sun.  They  paid  worship 
to  this  great  luminary,  as  the  great  visible  agent  of  a  great  invisi- 
ble first  cause,  whom  they  stilcd,  Time  without  limits. 

The  Christian  religion  and  Masonry  have  one  and  the  same 
common  origin,  both  are  derived  from  the  worship'of  the  sun  ;  the 
difference  between  their  origin  is,  that  the  Christian  religion  is  a 
parody  on  the  worship  of  the  sun,  in  which  they  put  a  man  whom 
they  call  Christ,  in  the  place  of  the  sun,  and  pay  him  the  same 


ORIGIN    OF    FREE-MASONHT.  313 

adoration  which  was  originally  paiJ  to  the  sun,  as  I  have  shown  in 
the  chapter  on  the  origin  of  the  Christian  religion.* 

In  Masonry  many  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  Druids  are  preserv- 
ed in  their  original  state,  at  least  without  any  parody.  "With  them 
the  sun  is  still  the  sun  ;  and  his  image  in  the  form  of  the  sun,  is 
the  great  emblematical  ornament  of  Masonic  Lodges  and  Masonic 
dresses.  It  is  the  central  figure  on  their  aprons,  and  they  wear  it 
also  pendant  on  the  breast  in  their  lodges,  and  in  their  processions. 
It  has  the  figure  of  a  man,  as  at  the  head  of  the  sun.,  as  Christ  is 
always  represented. 

At  what  period  of  antiquity,  or  in  what  nation,  this  religion  was 
first  established,  is  lost  in  the  labyrinth  of  unrecorded  times.  It  is 
generally  ascribed  to  the  ancient  Egyptians,  the  Babylonians  and 
Chaldeans,  and  reduced  afterwards  to  a  system  regulated  by  the 
apparent  progress  of  the  sun  through  the  twelve  signs  of  zodiac  by 
Zoroaster  the  lawgiver  of  Persia,  from  whence  Pythagoras  brought 
it  into  Greece.  It  is  to  these  matters  Dr.  Dodd  refers  in  the  pas- 
sage already  quoted  from  his  oration. 

The  worship  of  the  sun,  as  the  great  visible  agent  of  a  great  in- 
visible first  cause,  time  without  limits,  spread  itself  over  a  consi- 
derable part  of  Asia  and  Africa,  from  thence  to  Greece  and  Rome, 
through  all  ancient  Gaul,  and  into  Britain  and  Ireland. 

Smith,  in  his  chapter  on  the  antiquity  of  Masonry  in  Britain, 
says,  that  "  notwithstanding  the  obscurity  which  envelopes  masonic 
history  in  that  country,  various  circumstances  contribute  to  prove 
that  Free-Masonry  was  introduced  into  Britain  about  1030  years 
before  Christ." 

It  cannot  be  Masonry  in  its  present  state  that  Smith  here  alludes 
to.  The  Druids  flourished  in  Britain  at  the  period  he  speaks  of, 
and  it  is  from  them  that  Masonry  is  descended.  Smith  has  put 
the  child  in  the  place  of  the  parent. 

It  sometimes  happens,  as  well  in  writing  as  in  conversation, 
that  a  person  lets  slip  an  expression  that  serves  to  unravel  what  he 
intends  to  conceal,  and  this  is  the  case  with  Smith,  for  in  the  same 
chapter  he  says,  "  The  Druids,  when  they  committed  any  thing  to 
writing,  used  the  Greek  alphabet,  and  I  am  bold  to  assert  that  the 
most  perfect  remains  of  the  Druid's  rites  and  ceremonies  are 

♦  Referring  to  an  unpublished  portion  of  the  work  of  which  this  chapter 
forms  a  part.  ^ 

40 


314  ORIGIN    OF    FREE-MASONRY. 

preserved  in  the  customs  and  ceremonies  of  the  Masons  tnat  are  to 
be  found  existing  among  mankind.  "  My  brethren"  says  he,  "  may 
be  able  to  trace  them  with  greater  exactness  than  I  am  at  liberty 
to  explain  to  the  public." 

This  is  a  confession  from  a  Master  Mason,  without  intending  it 
to  be  so  understood  by  the  public,  that  Masonry  is  the  remains  of 
the  religion  of  the  Druids  ;  the  reasons  for  the  Masons  keeping 
this  a  secret  I  shall  explain  in  the  course  of  this  work. 

As  the  study  and  contemplation  of  the  Creator  in  the  works  of 
the  creation,  of  which  the  sun,  as  the  great  visible  agent  of  that 
Being,  was  the  visible  object  of  the  adoration  of  Druids,  all  their 
religious  rites  and  ceremonies  had  reference  to  the  apparent  pro- 
gress of  the  sun  through  the  twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  and  his 
influence  upon  the  earth.  The  Masons  adopt  the  same  practices. 
The  roof  of  their  temples  or  lodges  is  ornamented  with  a  sun,  and 
the  floor  is  a  representation  of  the  variegated  face  of  the  ea-'b, 
either  by  carpeting  or  by  Mosaic  work.  • 

Free-Masons'  Hall,  in  Great  Queen-street,  Lincoln's  Ina 
Fields,  London,  is  a  magnificent  building,  and  cost  upwards  of 
12,000  pounds  sterling.  Smith,  in  speaking  of  this  building,  says 
(page  152.)  "  The  roof  of  this  magnificent  hall  is,  in  all  proba- 
bility the  highest  piece  of  finished  architecture  in  Europe.  In  the 
centre  of  this  roof,  a  most  resplendent  sun  is  represented  in  burn- 
ished gold,  surrounded  with  the  twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  with 
thei  respective  character^ : 


f  Aries 
«  Taurus 
H  Gemini 
SE  Cancer 
6L  Leo 
TTE  Virgo 


=ii=  Libra 
■n\  Scorpio 
/   Sagittarius 
V3  Capricornus 
^  Aquarius 
^  Pisces 


After  giving  this  description,  he  says,  "  The  emblematical  mean- 
ing of  the  sun  is  well  known  to  the  enlightened  and  inquisitive 
Free-Mason  ;  and  as  the  real  sun  is  situated  in  the  centre  of  the 
universe,  so  the  emblematical  sun  is  the  centre  of  real  Masonry. 
We  all  know  continues  he,  that  the  sun  is  the  fountain  of  light,  the 
source  of  the  seasons,  tlie  cause  of  the  vicissitudes  of  day  and 
night,  the  parent  of  vegetation,  the  friend  of  man  ;  hence  the  sci- 
entific Free-Mason  only  knows  the  reason  why  the  sun  is  placed 
in  the  centre  of  this  beau.tiful  hall." 


ORIGirf    OF    FREE-MASONRV.  315 

The  Masons,  in  order  to  protect  themselves  from  the  pcrsecu 
tion  of  the  Christian  church,  have  always  spoken  in  a  mystical 
manner  of  the  figure  of  the  sun  in  their  lodges,  or,  like  the  astron- 
omer Lalande,  who  is  a  mason,  been  silent  upon  the  subject.  It  is 
their  secret,  especially  in  Catholic  countries,  because  the  figure  of 
the  sun  is  the  expressive  criterion  that  denotes  they  are  descended 
from  the  Druids,  and  that  wise,  elegant,  philosophical,  religion,  was 
the  faith  opposite  to  the  faith  of  the  gloomy  Christian  church. 

The  lodges  of  the  Masons,  if  built  for  the  purpose,  are   con- 
structed in  a  manner  to  correspond  with  the   apparent  motion  of 
the  sun.     They  arc  situated  East  and  West.     The  master's  place 
is  always  in  the  East.     In  the  examination  of  an  entered  appren 
tice,  the  master,  among  many  other  questions,  asks  him, 

Q.  How  is  the  lodge  situated  ■? 

A.  East  and  West. 

Q.  Why  so? 

A.   Because  all  churches  and  chapels  are,  or  ought  to  be  so. 

This  answer,  which  is  mere  catechismal  form,  is  not  an  answer 
to  the  question.  It  does  no  more  than  remove  the  question  a  point 
further,  which  is,  why  ought  all  churches  and  chapels  to  be  so  ? 
But  as  the  entered  apprentice  is  not  initiated  into  the  Druidical 
mysteries  of  Masonry,  he  is  not  asked  any  questions  to  which  a 
direct  answer  would  lead  thereto. 

Q.  Where  stands  your  master? 

A.  In  the  East. 

Q.  Why  so  ? 

A.  As  the  sun  rises  in  the  East,  and  opens  the  day,  so  the  master 
stands  in  the  East,  (with  his  right  hand  upon  his  left  breast,  being 
a  sign,  and  the  square  about  his  neck,)  to  open  the  lodge,  and  set 
his  men  at  work. 

Q.  Where  stand  your  wardens  ? 

A.  In  the  West. 

Q.  What  is  their  business  ? 

A.  As  the  sun  sets  in  the  West  to  close  the  day,  so  the  ward- 
ens stand  in  the  West,  (with  their  right  hands  upon  their  left  breasts 
being  a  sign,  and  the  level  and  plumb  rule  about  their  necks,)  to 
close  the  lodge,  and  dismiss  the  men  from  labour,  paying  them 
their  wages. 

Here  the  name  of  the  sun  is  mentioned,  but  it  is  proper  to  ob- 
serve, that  in  this  place  it  has  reference  only  to  labour  or  to  the 


316  ORIGIN    OF    FREE-MASONRY. 

time  of  labour,  and  not  to  any  religious  Druidical  rite  or  ceremony, 
as  it  would  have  with  respect  to  the  situation  of  lodges  East  and 
West.  I  have  already  observed  in  the  chapter  on  the  origin  of 
the  Christian  .religion,  that  the  situation  of  churches  East  and 
West  is  taken  from  the  worship  of  the  sun,  which  rises  in  the  east, 
and  has  not  the  least  reference  to  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ. 
The  Christians  never  bury  their  dead  on  the  North  side  of  a 
church  ;*  and  a  Mason's  Lodge  always  has,  or  is  supposed  to 
have,  three  windows  which  are  called  fixed  lights,  to  distinguish 
them  from  the  moveable  lights  of  the  sun  and  the  moon.  The 
master  asks  the  entered  apprentice, 

Q.   How  are  they  (the  fixed  lights)  situated  ? 

A.  East,  West,  and  South.  < 

Q.  What  are  their  uses  1 

A.   To  light  the  men  to  and  from  their  work. 

Q.  Why  are  there  no  lights  in  the  North  ? 

A.   Because  the  sun  darts  no  rays  from  thence. 

This,  among  numerous  other  instances,  shows  that  the  Christian 
religion,  and  Masonry*,  have  one  and  the  same  common  origin,  the 
ancient  worship  of  the  sun. 

The  high  festival  of  the  Masons  is  on  the  day  they  call  St.  John's 
day  ;  but  every  enlightened  Mason  must  know  that  holding  their 
festival  on  this  day  has  no  reference  to  the  person  called  St.  John  ; 
and  that  it  is  only  to  disguise  the  true  cause  of  holding  it  on   this 

*  This  may  have  been  the  case  formerly,  but  I  believe,  at  present,  very  lit- 
tle attention  is  paid  to  the  position  of  burying  grounds  in  respect  to  churches. 
In  regard  to  "  the  situation  of  Churches  east  and  west,"  I  find  the  rule  was  ob- 
served as  late  as  the  time  of  building  Saint  Paul's  Cathedral,  which  was  finish- 
ed in  1697.  William  Presten,  in  gfiving  a  description  of  this  edifice,  in  his  Illus- 
'rations  of  Masonry,  says,  "A  strict  regard  to  the  situation  of  this  Cathedral, 
due  east  and  west,  has  given  it  an  oblique  appearance  with  respect  to  Ludgate- 
street  in  front;  so  that  the  great  front  gate  in  the  surrounding  iron  rails,  being 
made  to  regard  the  street  in  front,  rather  than  the  church  to  which  it  belongs, 
the  statue  of  queen  Ann,  that  is  exactly  in  the  middle  of  the  west  front,  is 
thrown  on  one  side  the  straight  approach  from  the  gate  to  the  church,  and  gives 
an  idea  of  the  whole  edifice  being  awry."  In  1707,  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  the 
Arclutect  of  St.  Paul's  Catliedral,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  a  joint  commissioner 
with  himself  for  building  fifty  churches  in  addition  to  others  already  built,  to  sup- 
ply the  place  of  those  destroyed  by  the  conflagration  of  1666,  observes,  "  I  could 
wish  that  all  the  burials  in  churches  should  be  disallowed,  which  is  not  only 
unwholesome,  but  the  pavements  can  never  be  kept  even,  nor  pews  upright ; 
and  f  the  Church-yard  is  close  about  the  church,  tliis  also  is  inconvenient.  It 
will  be  enquired,  where  then  shall  be  the  burials  ?  I  answer  in  cemeteries 
seated  in  the  out-skirts  of  the  town.  As  to  the  situation  of  the  churches,  1 
should  propose  they  be  brought  as  for\vard  as  possible  into  the  larger  ana  more 
open  streets.  Nor  are  we,  I  think,  too  nicely  to  observe  East  and  West  in  the 
position,  unless  it  falls  out  properly."  See  Anderson's  Book  of  Constitutions 
of  the  Free-Masons. — ^Editor. 


ORIGIN    OF    FREE-MASONRY.  317 

day,  that  they  call  the  day  by  that  name.  As  there  were  Masons, 
or  at  least  Druids,  many  centuries  before  the  time  of  St.  John,  if 
such  person  ever  existed,  the  holding  their  festival  on  this  day 
must  refer  to  some  cause  totally  unconnected  with  John. 

The  case  is,  that  the  day  called  St.  John's  day,  is  the  24th  of 
June,  and  is  what  is  called  Midsummer-day.  The  sun  is  then  ar- 
rived at  the  summer  solstice  ;  and,  with  respect  to  his  meridional 
altitude,  or  height  at  high  noon,  appears  for  some  days  to  be  of  the 
same  height.  The  astronomical  longest  day,  like  the  shortest  day, 
is  not  every  year,  on  account  of  leap  year,  on  the  same  numerical 
'  day,  and  therefore  the  24th  of  June  is  always  taken  for  Midsum- 
mer-day ;  and  it  is  in  honor  of  the  sun,  which  has  then  arrived  at 
his  greatest  height,  in  our  hemisphere,  and  not  any  thing  with 
respect  to  St.  John,  that  this  annual  festival  of  the  Masons,  taken 
from  the  Druids,  is  celebrated  on  Midsummer-day. 

Customs  will  "often  outlive  the  remembrance  of  their  origin,  and 
this  is  the  case  with  respect  to  a  custom  still  practised  in  Ireland, 
where  the  Druids  flourished  at  the  time  they  flourished  in  Britain. 
On  the  eve  of  Saint  John's  day,  that  is,  on  the  eve  of  Midsummer 
day,  the  Irish  light  fires  on  the  tops  of  the  hills.  This  can  have  no 
reference  to  St.  John ;  but  it  has  emblematical  reference  to  the 
sun,  which  on  that  day  is  at  his  highest  summer  elevation,  and 
might  in  common  language  be  said  to  have  arrived  at  the  top  of 
the  hill. 

As  to  what  Masons,  and  books  of  Masonry,  tell  us  of  Solomon's 
Temple  at  Jerusalem,  it  is  no  wise  improbable  that  some  masonic 
ceremonies  may  have  been  derived  from  the  building  of  that  tem- 
ple, for  the  worship  of  the  sun  was  in  practice  many  centuries  be- 
fore the  temple  existed,  or  before  the  Israelites  came  out  of  Egypt. 
And  we  learn  from  the  history  of  the  Jewish  Kings,  2  Kings,  chap, 
xxii.  xxiii.  that  the  worship  of  the  sua  was  performed  by  the  Jews 
in  that  temple.  It  is,  however,  much  to  be  doubted,  if  it  was  done 
with  the  same  scientific  purity  and  religious  morality,  with  which  it 
was  performed  by  the  Druids,  who,  by  all  accounts  that  historically 
remain  of  them,  were  a  wise,  learned,  and  moral  class  of  men. 
The  Jews,  on  the  contrary,  were  ignorant  of  astronomy,  and  of 
science  in  general,  and  if  a  religion  founded  upon  astronomy,  fell 
into  their  hands,  it  is  almost  certain  it  would  be  corrupted.  "VVe 
do  not  read  in  the  history  of  the  Jews,  whether  in  the  Bible  or 
elsewhere,  that  they  were  the  inventors  or  the  improvers  of  any 


313  ORIGIN  OF    FREE  MASONRY. 

one  art  or  science.  Even  in  the  building  of  this  temple,  the  Jews 
did  not  know  how  to  square  and  frame  the  timber  for  beginning 
and  carrying  on  the  work,  and  Solomon  was  obliged  to  send  to 
Hiram,  King  of  Tyre,  (Zidon)  to  procure  workmen;  "  for  thou 
knowest,  (says  Solomon  to  Hiram,  1  Kings,  chap.  v.  ver.  6.)  that 
there  is  not  among  us  any  that  can  skill  to  hew  timber  like  unto 
the  Zidonians."  This  temple  was  more  properly  Hiram's  temple 
than  Solomon's,  and  if  the  Masons  derive  any  thing  from  the 
building  of  it,  they  owe  it  to  the  Zidonians  and  not  to  the  Jews.- 
But  to  return  to  the  worship  of  the  sun  in  this  temple. 

It  is  said,  2  Kings,  chap,  xxiii.  ver.  8.  "  And  king  Josiah  put 
down  all  the  idolatrous  priests  that  burned  incense  unto  the  sun, 
the  moon,  the  planets,  and  all  the  host  of  heaven." — And  it  is  said 
at  the  11th  ver.  "  and  he  took  away  the  horses  that  the  kings  of 
Judah  had  given  to  the  sun,  at  the  entering  in  of  the  house  of  the 
Lord,  and  burned  the  chariots  of  the  sun  with  fire,  ver.  13,  and 
the  high  places  that  were  before  Jerusalem,  which  were  on  the 
right  hand  of  the  mount  of  corruption,  which  Solomon  the  king  of 
Israel  had  builded  for  Astoreth,  the  abomination  of  the  Zido- 
nians  (the  very  people  that  built  the  temple)  did  the  king  defile. 

Besides  these  things,  the  description  that  Josepbus  gives  of  the 
decorations  of  this  temple,  resembles  on  a  large  scale  those  of  a 
Mason's  Lodge.  He  says  that  the  distribution  of  the  several 
parts  of  the  temple  of  the  Jews  represented  all  nature,  particularly 
the  parts  most  apparent  of  it,  as  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  planets,  the 
zodiac,  the  earth,  the  elements  ;  and  that  the  system  of  the  world 
was  retraced  there  by  numerous  ingenious  emblems.  These,  in  all 
probability,  are,  what  Josiah,  in  his  ignorance,  calls  the  abomina- 
tions of  the  Zidonians.*  Every  thing,  however,  drawn  from  this 
temple,|  and  applied  to  Masonry,  still  refers  to  the  worship  of  the 

*  Smith,  in  speaking  of  a  Lodge,  says,  when  the  Lodge  is  revealed  to  an  en- 
tering Mason,  it  discovers  to  him  a  representation  of  the  loorhl ;  in  which,  from 
the  wonders  of  nature,  we  are  led  to  contemplate  her  great  Original,  and  wor- 
ship him  from  his  mighty  works ;  and  we  are  thereby  also  moved  to  exercise 
those  moral  and  social  virtues  which  become  mankind  as  tlie  servants  of  the 
great  Architect  of  the  world. 

t  It  may  not  be  improper  here  to  observe,  that  the  law  called  the  law  of 
Moses  could  not  have  been  in  existence  at  the  time  of  building  this  temple. 
Here  is  the  likeness  of  things  in  heaven  above  and  m  the  earth  beneath.  And 
we  read  in  1  Kings,  chap.  6,  7,  that  Solomon  made  cherubs  and  cherubims.  that 
he  carved  all  the  walls  of  the  house  round  about  wuth  cherubims  and  pahn- 
trees,  and  open  flowers,  and  that  he  made  a  molten  sea,  placed  on  twelve  oxen, 
and  the  ledges  of  it  were  ornamented  with  lions,  oxen,  and  cherubims  ;  all  this 
is  contrary  to  the  law,  called  the  law  of  Moses. 


ORIGIN    OF    FREE-MASONRY.  319 

sun,  however  corrupted  or  misunderstood  by  the  Jews,  and,  con 
sequent!)-,  to  the  reHgion  of  the  Druids. 

Another  circumstance,  which  shows  that  Masonry  is  derived 
from  some  ancient  system,  prior  to,  and  unconnected  with,  the 
Christian  rehgion,  is  the  chronology,  or  method  of  counting  time, 
used  by  the  Masons  in  the  records  of  their  lodges.  They  make 
no  use  of  what  is  called  the  Christian  era  ;  and  they  reckon  their 
months  numerically,  as  the  ancient  Egyptians  did,  and  as  the 
Quakers  do  now.  I  have  by  me,  a  record  of  a  French  lodge, 
at  the  time  the  late  Duke  of  Orleans,  then  Duke  de  Chartres,  was 
Grand  Master  of  Masonry  in  France.  It  begins  as  follows  : 
•'  Le  trentieme  jour  due  sixieme  mois  de  Pan  de  la  V.  L.  cinq,  mil 
sept  cent  soixanle  trois  ;'i  that  is,  the  thirteenth  day  of  the  sixth 
month  of  the  year  of  the  venerable  Lodge,  five  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  seventy-three.  By  what  I  observe  in  English  books  of 
Masonry,  the  English  Masons  use  the  initials  A.  L.  and  not  V.  L. 
By  A.  L.  they  mean  in  the  year  of  the  Lodge,*  as  the  Christians 
bv  A.  D.  mean  in  the  year  of  our  Lord.  But  A.  L.  like  V.  L. 
refers  to  the  same  chronological  era,  that  is,  to  the  supposed  time 
of  the  creation.  In  the  chapter  on  the  origin  of  the  Christian 
religion,  I  have  shown  that  the  cosmogany,  that  is,  the  account  of 
the  creation,  with  which  the  book  of  Genesis  opens,  has  been  taken 
and  mutilated  from  the  Zend-Avista  of  Zoroaster,  and  is  fixed  as 
a  preface  to  the  Bible,  after  the  Jews  returned  from  captivity  in 
Babylon,  and  that  the  rabbins  of  the  Jews  do  not  hold  their  account 
in  Genesis  to  be  a  fact,  but  mere  allegory.  The  six  thousand 
years  in  the  Zend-Avista,  is  changed  or  interpolated  into  six  days 
in  the  account  of  Genesis.  The  Masons  appear  to  have  chosen 
the  same  period,  and  perhaps  to  avoid  the  suspicion  and  persecu- 
tion of  the  church,  have  adopted  the  era  of  the  world,  as  the  era  of 
Masonry.  The  V.  L.  of  the  French,  and  A.  L.  of  the  English 
Mason,  answer  to  the  A.  M.  Anno  Mundi,  or  year  of  the  world. 

Though  the  Masons  have  taken  many  of  their  ceremonies  and 
hieroglyphics  from  the  ancient  Egyptians,  it  is  certain  they  have 
not  taken  their  chronology  from  thence.  If  they  had,  the  church 
would  soon  have  sent  them  to  the  stake ;  as  the  chronology  of 

*  V.  L.  used  by  French  Masons,  are  the  initials  of  Vraie  Lumiere,  true  light ; 
and  A.  L.  used  by  the  English,  are  the  initials  of  Anno  Lucis,  in  the  year  of 
light.  But,  as  in  both  cases,  as  Mr.  Paine  observes,  reference  is  had  to  the  sup- 
posed time  of  the  creation,  liis  mistake  is  of  no  consequence. — Editor, 


320 


ORIGIN    OF    FREE-MASONRY. 


the  Egyptians,  like  that  of  the  Chinese,  goes  many  thousand 
years  beyond  the  Bible  chronology. 

The  religion  of  the  Druids,  as  before  said,  was  the  same  as  the 
religion  of  the  ancient  Egyptians.  The  priests  of  Egypt  were  the 
professors  and  teachers  of  science,  a«d  were  styled  priests  of 
Heliopolis,  that  is,  of  the  city  of  the  suti.  The  Druids  in  Europe, 
who  were  the  same  order  of  men,  have  their  name  from  the  Teu- 
tonic or  ancient  German  language  ;  the  Germans  being  anciently 
called  Teutones.  The  word  Druid  signifies  a  wise  man.  In 
Persia  they  were  called  magi,  which  signifies  the  same  thing. 

"  Egypt,  "  says  Smith,  "  from  whence  we  derive  many  of  our 
mysteries,  has  always  borne  a  distinguished  rank  in  history,  and 
was  once  celebrated  above  all  others  for  its  antiquities,  learning, 
opulence  and  fertility.  In  their  system,  their  principal  hero-gods, 
Osiris  and  Isis,  theologically  represented  the  Supreme  Being  and 
universal  nature  ;  and  physically  the  two  great  celestial  lumi- 
naries, the  sun  and  the  moon,  by  whose  influence  all  nature  was 
actuated.  The  experienced  brethren  of  the  society,  (says  Smitn 
in  a  note  to  this  passage)  are  well  informed  what  affinity  these 
symbols  bear  to  Masonry,  and  why  they  are  used  in  all  Masonic 
Lodges." 

In  speaking  of  the  apparel  of  the  Masons  in  their  Lodges,  part 
of  which,  as  we  see  in  their  public  processions,  is  a  white  leather 
apron,  he  says,  "  the  Druids  were  apparelled  in  white  at  the  time 
of  their  sacrifices  and  solemn  offices.  The  Egyptian  priests  ol 
Osiris  wore  snow-white  cotton.  The  Grecian  and  most  other 
priests  wore  white  garments.  As  Masons,  we  regard  the  princi- 
ples of  those  loho  were  the  first  worshipers  of  the  true  God,  imi- 
tate their  apparel,  and  assume  the  badge  of  innocence. 

"  The  Egyptians,"  continues  "Smith,  "  in  the  earliest  ages  con- 
stituted a  great  number  of  Lodges,  but  with  assiduous  care  kept 
their  secrets  of  Masonry  from  all  strangers.  These  secrets  have 
been  imperfectly  handed  down  to  us  by  tradition  only,  and  ought 
to  be  kept  undiscovered  to  the  labourers,  craftsmen,  and  appren- 
tices, till  by  good  behaviour  and  long  study,  they  become  better 
acquainted  in  geometry  and  the  liberal  arts,  and  thereby  qualified 
for  Masters  and  Wardens,  which  is  seldom  or  ever  the  case  with 
English  Masons." 

Under  the  head  of  Free-Masonry,  written  by  the  astronomer 
Lalande,  in  the  French  Encyclopedia,  I  expected  from  his  great 


ORIGIN    OF    FREE-MASONRY.  SSI 

knowledge  in  astronomy,  to  have  found  much  information  on  the 
origin  of  Masonry ;  for  what  connection  can  there  be  betweea 
any  institution  and  the  sun  and  tweJve  signs  of  the  zodiac,  if  there 
be  not  something  in  that  institution,  or  in  its  origin,  that  has  refer- 
ence to  astronomy.  Every  thing  used  as  an  hieroglyphic,  has 
reference  to  the  subject  and  purpose  for  which  it  is  used ;  and  we 
are  not  to  suppose  the  Free-Masons,  among  whom  are  many  very 
learned  and  scientific  men,  to  be  such  idiots  as  to  make  use  of 
astronomical  signs  without  some  astronomical  purpose. 

But  I  was  much  disappointed  in  my  expectation  from  Lalande. 
In  speaking  of  the  origin  of  Masonry,  he  says,  "Z<'  origine  de  la 
maconnerie  seperd,  comme  tant  d'autres  dansl'obscurite  des  temps;" 
that  is,  the  origin  of  Masonry,  like  many  others,  loses  itself  in  the 
obscurity  of  time.  "When  I  came  to  this  expression,  I  supposed 
Lalande  a  Mason,  and  on  enquiry  found  he  was.  This  passing 
over  saved  him  from  the  embarrassment  which  Masons  are  under 
respecting  the  disclosure  of  their  origin,  and  which  they  are  sworn 
to  conceal.  There  is  a  society  of  Masons  in  Dublin  who  take 
the  name  of  Druids  ;  these  Masons  must  be  supposed  to  have  a 
reason  for  taking  that  name. 

I  come  now  to  speak  of  the  cause  of  secrecy  used  by  the 
Masons. 

The  natural  source  of  secrecy  is  fear.  When  any  new  religion 
over-runs  a  former  religion,  the  professors  of  the  new  become  the 
persecutors  of  the  old.  We  see  this  in  all  the  instances  that  his- 
tory brings  before  us.  When  Hilkiah  the  priest,  and  Shaphan  the 
scribe,  in  the  reign  of  King  Josiah,  found,  or  pretended  to  find  the 
law,  called  the  law  of  Moses,  a  thousand  years  after  the  time  of 
Moses,  and  it  does  not  appear  from  the  2d  book  of  Kings,  chap- 
ters 22,  23,  that  such  law  was  ever  practiced  or  known  before  the 
time  of  Josiah,  he  established  that  law  as  a  national  religion,  and 
put  all  the  priests  of  the  sun  to  death.  When  the  Christian  reli- 
gion over-ran  the  Jewish  religion,  the  Jews  were  the  continual 
subjects  of  persecution  in  all  Christian  countries.  When  the 
Protestant  religion  in  England  over-ran  the  Roman  Catholic  reli- 
gion, it  was  made  death  for  a  Catholic  priest  to  be  found  in  Eng- 
land. As  this  has  been  the  case  in  all  the  instances  we  have  any 
knowledge  of,  we  are  obliged  to  admit  it  with  respect  to  the  case 
in  question,  and  that  when  the  Christian  religion  over-ran  the  reli- 
gion of  the  Druids  in  Italy,  ancient  Gaul,  Britain,  and  Ireland,  the 
41 


322  ORIGIN    OF    FREE-MASONRY. 

Druids  became  the  subjects  of  persecution.  This  would  naturally 
and  necessarily  oblige  such  of  them  as  remained  attached  to  their 
original  religion  to  meet  in  secret,  and  under  the  strongest  injunc- 
tions of  secrecy.  Their  safety  depended  upon  it.  A  false  bro- 
ther might  expose  the  lives  of  many  of  them  to  destruction  ;  and 
from  the  remains  of  the  religion  of  the  Druids,  thus  preserved, 
arose  the  institution,  which,  to  avoid  the  name  of  Druid,  took  that 
of  Mason,  and  practised,  under  this  new  name,  the  rights  and 
ceremonies  of  Druids. 


LETTER 


SAMUEL    ADAMS. 


My  dear  and  venerable  friend, 

I  RECEIVED  with  great  pleasure  your  friendly  and  affectionate 
letter  of  Nov.  30tli,  and  I  thank  you  also  for  the  frankness  of  it. 
Between  men  in  pursuit  of  truth,  and  whose  object  is  the  happi- 
ness of  man  both  here  and  hereafter,  there  ought  to  be  no  reserve. 
Even  error  has  a  claim  to  indulgence,  if  not  to  respect,  when  it  is 
believed  to  be  truth.  I  am  obliged  to  you  for  your  aff*ectionate 
remembrance  of  what  you  style  my  services  in  awakening  the  pub- 
lic mind  to  a  declaration  of  independence,  and  supporting  it  after 
it  was  declared.  I  also,  like  you,  have  often  looked  back  on  those 
times,  and  have  thought,  that  if  independence  had  not  been  de- 
clared at  the  time  it  was,  the  public  mind  could  not  have  been 
brought  up  to  it  afterwards.  It  will  immediately  occur  to  you, 
who  were  so  intimately  acquainted  with  the  situation  of  things  tt 
that  time,  that  I  allude  to  the  black  times  o(  seventij-six  ;  for  thoaga 
I  know,  and  you  my  friend  also  know,  they  were  no  other  than  the 
natural  consequences  of  the  military  blunders  of  that  campaign 
the  country  might  have  viewed  them  as  proceeding  from  a  natural 
inability  to  support  its  cause  against  the  enemy,  and  have  sunk  un- 
der the  despondency  of  that  misconceived  idea.  This  was  the 
impression  against  which  it  was  necessary  the  country  should  be 
strongly  animated. 


324  LETTER    TO 

I  now  come  to  the  second  part  of  your  letter,  on  which  I  shall 
be  as  frank  with  you  as  you  are  with  me.  "But  (say  you;  when 
I  heard  you  had  turned  your  mind  to  a  defence  of  infidelihj,  I  felt 
myself  much  astonished,"  &c.  "What,  my  good  friend,  do  you 
call  believing  in  God  infideliUj  1  for  that  is  the  great  point  mention- 
ed in  the  Age  of  Reason  against  all  divided  beliefs  and  allegori- 
cal divinities.  The  Bishop  of  Llandaff  (Dr.  Watson)  not  only  ac- 
knowledges this,  but  pays  me  some  compliments  upon  it,  in  his 
answer  to  the  second  part  of  that  work.  "There  is  (says  he)  a 
philosophical  sublimity  in  some  of  your  ideas,  when  speaking  of 
the  Creator  of  the  Universe." 

What  then,  (my  much  esteemed  friend,  for  I  do  not  respect 
you  the  less  because  we  differ,  and  that  perhaps  not  much,  in  re- 
ligious sentiments,)  what,  I  ask,  is  the  thing  called  infidelity  ?  If 
we  go  back  to  your  ancestors  and  mine,  three  or  four  hundred 
years  ago,  for  we  must  have  fathers,  and  grandfathers  or  we  should 
not  have  been  here,  we  shall  find  them  praying  to  saints  and  vir 
gins,  and  believing  in  purgatory  and  transubstantiation  ;  and  there 
fore,  all  of  us  are  infidels  according  to  our  forefather's  belief. 
If  we  go  back  to  times  more  ancient  we  shall  again  be  infidels  ac- 
cording to  the  belief  of  some  other  forefathers. 

The  case,  my  friend,  is,  that  the  world  has  been  overrun  with 
fable  and  creed  of  human  invention,  with  sectaries  of  whole 
nations  against  other  nations,  and  sectaries  of  those  sectaries  in 
each  of  them  against  each  other.  Every  sectary,  except  the 
Quakers,  have  been  persecutors.  Those  who  fled  from  perse- 
cution, persecuted  in  their  turn,  and  it  is  this  confusion  of  creeds 
that  has  filled  the  world  with  persecution,  and  deluged  it  with 
blood.  Even  the  depredation  on  your  commerce  by  the  Barbary 
powers,  sprang  from  the  crusades  of  the  church  against  those 
powers.  It  was  a  war  of  creed  against  creed,  each  boasting  of 
God  for  its  author,  aud  reviling  each  other  with  the  name  of  in- 
fidel. If  I  do  not  believe  as  you  believe,  it  proves  that  you  do 
not  believe  as  I  believe,  and  this  is  all  that  it  proves. 

There  is,  however,  one  point  of  union  wherein  all  religions 
meet,  and  that  is  in  the  first  article  of  every  man's  creed,  and 
of  every  nation's  creed,  that  has  any  creed  at  all,  I  believe  in 
God.  Those  who  rest  here,  and  there  are  millions  who  do,  can- 
not be  wrong  as  far  as  their  creed  goes.  Those  who  choose  to  go 
further  may  be  ivrong,  for  it  is  impossible  that  all  can  be  right. 


SAMUEL    ADAMS.  325 

since  there  Is  so  much  contradiction  among  them.  The  first, 
therefore,  are,  in  my  opinion,  on  the  safest  side. 

I  presume  you  are  so  far  acquainted  with  ecclesiastical  history 
as'to  know,  and  the  bishop  who  has  answered  me  has  been  obliged 
to  acknowledge  the  fact,  that  the  Books  that  compose  the  New 
Testament,  were  voted  by  yeas  and  nays  to  be  the  Word  of  God, 
as  you  now  vote  a  law,  by  the  Pooish  Councils  of  Nice  and  Lao- 
docia,  about  fourteen  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  AVith  respect 
to  the  fact  there  is  no  dispute,  neither  do  I  mention  it  for  the  sake 
of  controversy.  This  vote  may  appear  authority  enough  to  some, 
and  not  authority  enough  to  others.  It  is  proper,  however,  that 
every  body  should  know  the  fact. 

With  respect  to  the  Age  of  Reason,  which  you  so  much  con- 
demn, and  that,  I  believe,  without  having  read  it,  for  you  say  only 
that  you  heard  of  it,  I  will  inform  you  of  a  circumstance,  because 
you  cannot  know  it  by  other  means. 

I  have  said  in  the  first  page  of  the  first  part  of  that  work,  that 
it  had  long  been  my  intention  to  publish  my  thoughts  upon  re- 
ligion, but  that  I  had  reserved  it  to  a  later  time  of  life.  I  have 
now  to  inform  you  why  I  wrote  it,  and  published  it  at  the  time  I 
did. 

In  the  first  place,  I  saw  my  life  in  continual  danger.  My 
friends  were  falling  as  fast  as  the  guillotine  could  cut  their  heads 
off,  and  as  I  expected  every  day  the  same  fate,  I  resolved  to  be- 
gin my  work.  I  appeared  to  myself  to  be  on  my  death  bed,  for 
death  was  on  every  side  of  me,  and  I  had  no  time  to  lose. 
This  accounts  for  my  writing  at  the  time  I  did,  and  so  nicely  did 
the  time  and  intention  meet,  that  I  had  not  finished  the  first  part  of 
the  work  more  than  six  hours  before  I  was  arrested  and  taken  to 
prison.     Joel  Barlow  was  with  me,  and  knows  the  fact. 

In  the  second  place,  the  people  of  France  were  running  head- 
long into  atheism,  and  I  had  the  work  translated  and  published  in 
their  own  language,  to  stop  them  in  that  career,  and  fix  them  to  the 
first  article  (as  I  have  before  said)  of  every  man's  creed,  who  has 
any  creed  at  ail,  I  believe  in  God.  I  endangered  my  own  life,  in 
the  first  place,  by  opposing  in  the  Convention  the  executing  of  the 
king,  and  labouring  to  show  they  were  trying  the  monarch  and  not 
the  man,  and  that  the  crimes  imputed  to  him  were  the  crimes  of 
the  monarchial  system  ;  and  endangered  it  a  second  time  by 
opposing  atheism,  and  yet  some  of  your  priests,  for  1  do  not  be- 


326  LETTER    TO 

lieve  that  all  are  perverse,  cry  out,  in  the  loar-tohoop  of  monarchial 
priest-craft,  what  an  infidel !  what  a  wicked  man  is  Thomas 
Paine !  They  might  as  well  add,  for  he  believes  in  God,  and  is 
against  shedding  blood. 

But  all  this  war-whoop  of  the  pulpit  has  some  concealed  object. 
Religion  is  not  the  cause,  but  is  the  stalking  horse.  They  put  it 
forward  to  conceal  themselves  behind  it.  It  is  not  a  secret  that 
there  has  been  a  party  composed  of  the  leaders  of  the  Federalists, 
for  I  do  not  include  all  Federalists  with  their  leaders,  who  have 
been  working  by  various  means  for  several  years  past,  to  over- 
turn the  Federal  Constitution  established  on  the  representative 
system,  and  place  government  in  the  new  world  on  the  corrupt 
system  of  the  old.  To  accomplish  this  a  large  standing  army  was 
necessary,  and  as  a  pretence  for  such  an  army,  the  danger  of  a 
foreign  invasion  must  be  bellowed  forth,  from  the  pulpit,  from  the 
press,  and  by  their  public  orators. 

I  am  not  of  a  disposition  inclined  to  suspicion.  It  is  in  its  na- 
ture a  mean  and  cowardly  passion,  and  upon  the  whole,  even  admit- 
ting error  into  the  case,  it  is  better,  I  am  sure  it  is  more  generous 
to  be  wrong  on  the  side  of  confidence,  than  on  the  side  of  sus- 
picion. But  I  know  as  a  fact,  that  the  English  Government  dis- 
tributes annually  fifteen  hundred  pounds  sterling  among  the  Pres- 
byterian ministers  in  England,  and  one  hundred  among  those  of 
Ireland  ;*  and  when  I  hear  of  the  strange  discourses  of  some  of 
your  ministers  and  professors  of  colleges  I  cannot,  as  the  Qua- 
kers say,  find  freedom  in  my  mind  to  acquit  them.  Their  anti-re- 
volutionary doctrines  invite  suspicion,  even  against  one's  will,  and 
in  spite  of  one's  charity  to  believe  well  of  them. 

As  you  have  given  me  one  Scripture  phrase,  I  will  give  you 
another  for  those  ministers.  It  is  said  in  Exodus  chapter  xxiii, 
verse  28,  '*  Thou  shalt  not  revile  the  Gods,  nor  curse  the  ruler  of 
thy  people."  But  those  ministers,  such  I  mean  as  Dr.  Emmons, 
curse  ruler  and  people  both,  for  the  majority  are,  politically,  the 
people,  and  it  is  those  who  have  chosen  the  ruler  whom  they  curse. 

As  to  the  first  part  of  the  verse  that  of  not  reviling  the  Godsy 
it  makes  no  part  of  my  ScripUue  :    I  have  but  one  God. 


*  There  must  undoubtedly  be  a  very  gross  lYiistake  in  respect  to  the  amount 
said  to  be  expended  ;  the  sums  intended  to  be  expressed  were  probably  fifteen 
hundred  thousand,  and  one  hundred  thousand  pounds. — Editor. 


SAMUEL    ADAMS.  327 

Since  I  began  this  letter,  for  I  write  it  by  piecemeals  as  I  have 
leisure,  I  have  seen  the  four  letters  that  passed  between  you  and 
John  Adams.  In  your  first  letter  you  say.  "  Let  divines  and 
philosophers,  statesmen  and  patriots,  unite  their  endeavours  to  re- 
novate the  age,  by  inculcating  in  the  minds  of  youth  the  fear  and 
love  of  the  Deity  and  universal  philanthropy.^*  Why,  my  dear 
friend,  this  is  exactly  my  religion,  and  is  the  whole  of  it.  That 
you  may  have  an  idea  that  the  Age  of  Reason  (for  I  believe  you 
have  not  read  it)  inculcates  this  reverential  fear  and  love  of  the 
Deity,  I  will  give  you  a  paragraph  from  it. 

"  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  power?  We  see  it  in  the  im- 
mensity of  the  Creation.  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  wis- 
dom 1  We  see  it  in  the  unchangeable  order  by  which  the  incom- 
prehensible whole  is  governed.  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his 
munificence  1  We  see  it  in  the  abundance  with  which  he  fills  the 
earth.  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  mercy  ?  We  see  it  in  his 
not  withholding  that  abundance  even  from  the  unthankful." 

As  I  am  fully  with  you  in  your  first  part,  that  respecting  the 
Deity,  so  am  I  in  your  second,  that  of  universal  philanthropy  ; 
by  which  I  do  not  mean  merely  the  sentimental  benevolence  of 
wishing  well,  but  the  practical  benevolence  of  doing  good.  We 
cannot  serve  the  Deity  in  the  manner  we  serve  ihose  wno  cannot 
do  without  that  service.  He  needs  no  services  from  us.  We  can 
add  nothing  to  eternity.  But  it  is  in  our  power  to  render  a  service 
acceptable  to  him,  and  that  is,  not  by  praymg,  but  by  endeavouring 
to  make  his  creatures  happy.  A  man  does  not  serve  God  when 
he  prays,  for  it  is  himself  he  is  trying  to  serve  ;  and  as  to  hiring 
or  paying  men  to  pray,  as  if  the  Deity  needed  instruction,  it  is  in 
mj  opinion  an  abomination.  One  good  school-master  is  of  more 
use  and  of  more  value  than  a  load  of  such  parsons  as  Dr. 
Emmons,  and  some  others. 

You,  my  dear  and  much  respected  friend,  are  now  far  in  the 
vale  of  years  ;  I  have  yet,  I  believe,  some  years  in  store,  for  I 
have  a  good  state  of  health  and  a  happy  mind :  I  take  care  of 
both,  by  nourishing  the  first  with  temperance,  and  the  latter  with 
abundance. 

This  I  believe  you  will  allow  to  be  the  true  philosophy  of  life. 
You  will  see  by  my  third  letter  to  the  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
that  I  have  oeen  exposed  to,  and  preserved  through  many  dan- 
gers ;  but,  instead  of  buffeting  the  Deity  with  prayers,  as  if  I  dis- 


328  LETTER  TO  SAMUEL  ADAMS. 

trusted  him,  or  must  dictate  to  him,  I  reposed  myself  on  his  pro- 
tection :  and  you,  my  friend,  will  find,  even  in  your  last  moments, 
more  consolation  in  the  silence  of  resignation  than  in  the  mur- 
muring wish  of  prayer. 

In  every  thing  which  you  say  in  your  second  letter  to  John 
Adams,  respecting  our  rights  as  men  and  citizens  in  this  world,  I 
am  perfectly  with  you.  On  other  points  we  have  to  answer  to  our 
Creator  and  not  to  each  other.  The  key  of  heaven  is  not  in  the 
keeping  of  any  sect,  nor  ought  the  road  to  it  to  be  obstructed  by 
any.  Our  relation  to  each  other  m  this  world  is,  as  men,  and  the 
man  who  is  a  friend  to  man  and  to  his  rights,  let  his  religious 
opinions  be  whai  ihey  may,  is  a  good  citizen,  to  whom  I  can  give, 
as  1  ought  to  do,  and  as  every  other  ought,  the  right  hand  of  fellow- 
ship, and  to  none  with  more  hearty  good  will,  my  dear  friend,  than 
to  you. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 

Federal  Citij,  Jan.  1,  1803. 


EXTRACT  FROM  A 

LETTER  TO  ANDREW  A.  DEAN* 


Respected  Friend, 

I  received  your  friendly  letter,  for  which  I  am  obliged  to  you.  It 
is  three  weeks  ago  to  day  (Sunday,  Aug.  15,)  that  I  was  struck 
with  a  fit  of  an  apoplexy,  that  deprived  me  of  all  sense  and  mo- 
tion. I  had  neither  pulse  nor  breathing,  and  the  people  about  me 
supposed  me  dead.  I  had  felt  exceedingly  well  that  day,  and  had 
just  taken  a  slice  of  bread  and  butter,  for  supper,  and  was  going  to 
bed.  The  fit  took  me  on  the  stairs,  as  suddenly  as  if  I  had  been 
shot  through  the  head  ;  and  I  got  so  very  much  hurt  by  the  fall, 
that  I  have  not  been  able  to  get  in  and  out  of  bed  since  that  day, 
otherwise  than  being  lifted  out  in  a  blanket,  by  two  persons  ;  yet 
all  this  while  my  mental  faculties  have  remained  as  perfect  as  I 
ever  enjoyed  them.  I  consider  the  scene  I  have  passed  through 
as  an  experiment  on  dying,  and  I  find  that  death  has  no  terrors  for 
me.  As  to  the  people  called  Christians,  they  have  no  evidence 
that  their  religion  is  true.!  There  is  no  more  proof  that  the  Bible 
is  the  word  of  God,  than  that  the  Koran  of  Mahomet  is  the  word 
of  God.  It  is  education  makes  all  the  difference.  Man,  before 
he  begins  to  think  for  himself,  is  as  much  the  child  of  habit  in 
Creeds  as  he  is  in  ploughing  and  sowing.  Yet  creeds,  like  opinions, 
prove  nothing. 

*  Mr.  Dean  rented  Mr.  Paine's  farm  at  New  Rochelle. 

f  Mr.  Paine's  entering  upon  the  subject  of  religion  on  this  occasion,  it  may 
be  presumed  was  occasioned  by  the  following  passage  in  Mr.  Dean's  letter  to 
him,  viz: 

"  I  have  read  with  good  attention  your  manuscript  on  dreams,  and  examin- 
ation on  the  prophecies  in  the  Bible.  I  am  now  searching  the  old  prophecies, 
and  comparing  the  same  to  those  said  to  be  quoted  in  the  New  Testament.  1 
confess  the  comparison  is  a  matter  worthy  of  our  serious  attention ;  I  know  not 
the  result  till  I  finish  ;  then,  if  you  be  living,  I  shall  communicate  the  same  to 
you ;  I  hope  to  be  with  you  soon." 

42 


830  LETTER    TO   MR.    DEAS. 

"Where  is  the  evidence  that  the  pnrson  called  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
begotten  Son  of  God  ?  The  case  admits  not  of  evidence  either 
.0  our  sense?  or  our  mental  faculties  :  neither  has  God  given  to 
man  any  talent  by  which  such  a  thing  is  comprehensible.  It  can- 
not therefore  be  an  object  for  faith  to  act  upon,  for  faith  is  nothing 
more  than  an  assent  the  mind  gives  to  something  it  sees. cause  U 
believe  is  fact.  But  priests,  preachers,  and  fanatics,  put  imagina- 
tion in  the  place  of  faith,  and  it  is  the  nature  of  the  imagmation  to 
believe  without  evidence. 

If  Joseph  the  carpenter  dreamed,  (as  the  book  of  Matthew, 
chap.  1st,  says  he  did,)  that  his  betrothed  wife,  Mary,  was  with 
child,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  an  angel  told  him  so  ;  I  am  not 
obliged  to  put  faith  in  his  dream,  nor  do  I  put  any,  for  I  put  no 
faith  in  my  own  dreams,  and  I  should  be  weak  and  foolish  indeed 
to  put  faith  in  the  dreams  of  others. 

The  Christian  religion  is  derogatory  to  the  Creator  in  all  its 
articles.  It  puts  the  Creator  in  an  inferior  point  of  view,  and 
places  the  Christian  Devil  above  him.  It  is  he,  according  to  the 
absurd  story  in  Genesis,  that  outwits  the  Creator,  in  the  garden 
of  Eden,  and  steals  from  him  his  favorite  creature,  man,  and,  at 
last,  obliges  him  to  beget  a  son,  and  put  that  son  to  death,  to  get 
man  back  again,  and  this  the  priests  of  the  Christian  religion,  call 
redemption. 

Christian  authors  exclaim  against  the  practice  of  offering  up  hu- 
man sacrifices,  which,  they  say,  is  done  in  some  countries  ;  and 
those  authors  make  those  exclamations  without  ever  reflecting  that 
their  own  doctrine  of  salvation  is  founded  on  a  human  sacrifice. 
They  are  saved,  they  say,  by  the  blood  of  Christ.  The  Christian 
religion  begins  with  a  dream  and  ends  with  a  murder. 

As  I  am  now  well  enough  to  sit  up  some  hours  in  the  day, 
though  not  well  enough  to  get  up  without  help,  I  employ  myself  as 
I  have  always  done,  in  endeavouring  to  bring  man  to  the  right  use 
of  the  reason  that  God  has  given  him,  and  to  direct  his  mind  im- 
mediately to  his  Creator,  and  not  to  fanciful  secondary  beings 
called  mediators,  as  if  God  was  superannuated  or  ferocious. 

As  to  the  book  called  the  Bible,  it  is  blasphemy  to  call  it  the 
word  of  God.  It  is  a  book  of  lies  and  contradiction,  and  a  history 
of  bad  times  and  bad  men.  There  is  but  a  few  good  characters 
in  the  whole  book.  The  fable  of  Christ  and  his  twelve  apostles, 
which  is  a  parody  on  the  sun  and  the  twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac, 


LETTER    TO    MR.    DEAN.  331 

copied  from  the  ancient  religions  of  the  eastern  world,  is  the  least 
hurtful  part.  Every  thing  told  of  Christ  has  reference  to  the  sun. 
His  reported  resurrection  is  at  sunrise,  and  that  on  the  first  day  of 
the  week ;  that  is,  on  the  day  anciently  dedicated  to  the  sun,  and 
from  thence  called  Sunday  ;  in  latin  Dies  Soils,  the  day  of  the 
sun  ;  as  the  next  day,  Monday,  is  Moon-day.  But  there  is  no  room 
m  a  letter  to  explain  these  things. 

While  man  keeps  to  the  belief  of  one  God,  his  reason  unites 
with  his  creed.  He  is  not  shocked  with  contradictions  and  horrid 
stories.  His  bible  is  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  He  beholds  his 
Creator  in  all  his  works,  and  every  thing  he  beholds  inspires  him 
with  reverence  and  gratitude.  From  the  goodness  of  God  to  all, 
he  learns  his  duty  to  his  fellow-man,  and  stands  self-reproved 
when  he  transgresses  it.     Such  a  man  is  no  persecutor. 

But  when  he  multiplies  his  creed  with  imaginary  things,  of 
which  he  can  have  neither  evidence  nor  conception,  such  as  the 
tale  of  the  garden  of  Eden,  the  talking  serpent,  the  fall  of  man, 
the  dreams  of  Joseph  the  carpenter,  the  pretended  resurrection 
and  ascension,  of  which  there  is  even  no  historical  relation,  for  no 
historian  of  those  times  mentions  such  a  thing,  he  gets  into  the 
pathless  region  of  confusion,  and  turns  either  frantic  or  hypocrite. 
He  forces  his  mind,  and  pretends  to  believe  what  he  does  not  be- 
lieve. This  is  in  general  the  case  with  the  methodists.  Their 
religion  is  all  creed  and  no  morals. 

I  have  now  my  friend  given  you  afac  simile  of  my  mind  on  the 
subject  of  religion  and  creeds,  and  my  wish  is,  that  you  make  this 
letter  as  publicly  known  as  you  find  opportunities  of  doing. 
Yours,  in  friendship, 

THOMAS  PAINE. 

N.  Y    Auir.  1806. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PIECES. 


EXTRACTED  FROM  THE  "  PROSPECT,  OR  VIEW  OF  THE  MORAL 
WORLD,"  A  PERIODICAL  WORK,  EDITED  AND  PUBLISHED  Til 
ELIHU  PALMER,  AT  NEW-YORK,  IN  THE  YEAR  1804. 


The  following  fugitive  pieces  were  written  by  Mr.  Paine  occa 
sionally  to  pass  off  an  idle  hour,  and  communicated  for  the  Pros- 
pect, to  aid  his  friend,  Mr.  Palmer,  in  support  of  that  publication. 
Perhaps,  in  some  cases,  it  may  appear  that  the  same  ideas  have 
been  expressed  in  his  other  works  ;  but,  if  so,  the  various  points 
of  view,  in  which  they  are  here  placed,  it  is  presumed,  will  no- 
fail  to  give  an  interest  to  these  miscellaneous  remarks. 

Th«  same  signatures  are  continued  as  were  subscribed  to  the 
origiaal  communications. 


REMARKS  ON  R.  HALL'S  SERMONS. 

\JIlie  following  piece^  obligingly-  communicated  by  J\Ir.  Paine,  for 

the  Prospect,  is  full  of  thai  acuteness  of  mind,  "perspicuity  of 

expression,  and  clearness  of  discernment  for  which  this  excellent 

author  is  so  remarkable  in  all  his  xvritings.'] 

Robert  Hall,  a  protestant  minister  in  England,  preached  and 

published  a  sermon  against  what  he  calls  "  JModern  infidelity^  A 

copy  of  it  was  sent  to  a  gentleman  in  America,  with  a  request  for 

his  opinion  thereon.     That  gentleman  sent  it  to  a  friend  of  his  in 

New- York,  with  the  request  written  on  the  cover — and  this  last 

sent  it  to  Thomas  Paine,  who  wrote  the  following  observations  on 

the  blank  leaf  at  the  end  of  the  sermon. 

The  preacher  of  the  foregoing  sermon  speaks  a  great  deal  about 
infidelity,  but  does  not  define  what  he  means  by  it.  His  harangue 
is  a  general  exclamation.     Every  thing,  I  suppose,  that  is  not  in 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  333 

his  cieed  is  infidelity  with  him,  and  his  creed  is  infidelity  with  me. 
Infidelity  is  believing  falsely.  If  what  christians  believe  is  not 
true,  it  is  the  christians  that  arc  the  infidels. 

The  point  between  deists  and  christians  is  not  about  doctrine, 
but  about  fact — for  if  the  things  believed  by  the  christians  to  be 
facts,  are  not  facts,  the  doctrine  founded  thereon  falls  of  itself. 
There  is  such  a  book  as  the  Bible,  but  is  it  a  fact  that  the  bible  is 
revealed  7'eligion  ?  The  christians  cannot  prove  it  is.  They  put 
tradition  in  place  of  evidence,  and  tradition  is  not  proof.  If  it 
were,  the  reality  of  witches  could  be  proved  by  the  same  kind  of 
evidence. 

The  bible  is  a  history  of  the  times  of  which  it  speaks,  and  history 
is  not  revelation.  The  obscene  and  vulgar  stories  in  the  bible 
are  as  repugnant  to  our  ideas  of  the  purity  of  a  divine  Being,  as  the 
horrid  cruellies  and  murders  it  ascribes  to  him,  are  repugnant  to 
our  ideas  of  his  justice.  It  is  the  reverence  of  the  Deists  for  the 
attributes  of  the  Deitv,  that  causes  them  to  reject  the  bible. 

Is  the  account  which  the  christian  church  gives  of  the  person 
called  Jesus  Christ,  a  fact  or  a  fable  ?  Is  it  a  fact  that  he  was  be- 
gotten by  the  Holy  Ghost  1  The  christians  cannot  prove  it,  for  the 
case  does  not  admit  of  proof.  The  things  called  miracles  in  the 
bible,  such,  for  instance,  as  raising  the  dead,  admitted,  if  true,  of 
occular  demonstration,  but  the  story  of  the  conception  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  womb  is  a  case  beyond  miracle,  for  it  did  not  admit 
of  demonstration.  Mary,  the  reputed  mother  of  Jesus,  who  musi 
be  supposed  to  know  best,  never  said  so  herself,  and  all  the  evi 
dence  of  it  is,  that  the  book  of  Matthew  says,  that  Joseph  dreamed 
an  angel  told  him  so.  Had  an  old  maid  of  two  or  three  hundred 
years  of  age,  brought  forth  a  child,  it  would  have  been  much  bet- 
ter presumptive  evidence  of  a  supernatural  conception,  than  Mat- 
thew's story  of  Joseph's  dream  about  his  young  wife. 

Is  it  a  fact  that  Jesus  Christ  died  for  the  sins  of  the  world,  and 
how  is  it  proved  1  If  a  God  he  could  not  die,  and  as  a  man  he 
could  not  redeem,  how  then  is  this  redemption  proved  to  be  fact  ? 
It  is  said  that  Adam  eat  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  commonly  called  an 
apple,  and  thereby  subjected  himself  and  all  his  posterity  for  ever 
to  eternal  damnation.  This  is  worse  than  visiting  the  sins  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generations. 
But  how  was  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ  to  aflect  or  alter  the  case  ?  — 
Did  God  thirst  for  blood  ?    If  so,  would  it  not  have  been  better  to 


334  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

have  crucified  Adam  at  once  upon  the  forbidden  tree,  and  made  a 
new  man?  Would  not  this  have  been  more  creator  Hke  than  re- 
Dairing  the  old  one  1  Or,  did  God,  when  he  made  Adam,  suppos- 
ing the  story  to  be  true,  exclude  himself  from  the  right  of  mak- 
ing another  1  Or  impose  on  himself  the  necessity  of  breeding  from 
the  old  stock  1  Priests  should  first  prove  facts,  and  deduce  doc- 
trines from  them  afterwards.  But,  instead  of  this,  they  assume 
every  thing  and  prove  nothing.  Authorities  drawn  from  the  bible 
are  no  more  than  authorities  drawn  from  other  books,  unless  it  can 
be  proved  that  the  bible  is  revelation. 

This  story  of  the  redemption  will  not  stand  examination.  That 
man  should  redeem  himself  from  the  sin  of  eating  an  apple,  by 
committing  a  murder  on  Jesus  Christ,  is  the  strangest  system  of 
religion  ever  set  up.  Deism  is  perfect  purity  compared  with  this. 
Tt  is  an  established  principle  with  the  quakers  not  to  shed  blood — 
suppose,  then,  all  Jerusalem  had  been  quakers  when  Christ  lived, 
there  would  have  been  nobody  to  crucify  him,  and  in  that  case,  if 
man  is  redeemed  by  his  blood,  which  is  the  belief  of  the  church, 
there  could  have  been  no  redemption — and  the  people  of  Jerusa- 
lem must  all  have  been  damned,  because  they  were  too  good  to 
commit  murder.  The  christian  system  of  religion  is  an  outrage 
on  common  sense.     Why  is  man  afraid  to  think  1 

Why  do  not  the  christians,  to  be  consistent,  make  saints  of  Ju- 
das and  Pontius  Pilate,  for  they  were  the  persons  who  accom- 
plished the  act  of  salvation.  The  merit  of  a  sacrifice,  if  there  nan 
be  any  merit  in  it,  was  never  in  the  thing  sacrificed,  but  in  the  per- 
sons offering  up  the  sacrifice — and,  therefore,  Judas  and  Pontius 
Pilate  ought  to  stand  first  on  the  calendar  of  saints. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


OF  THE  WORD  RELIGION, 

AND    OTHER    WORDS    OF    UNCERTAIN    SIGNIFICATION. 


The  word  religion  is  a  word  of  forced  application  when  used 
with  respect  to  the  worship  of  God.  The  root  of  the  word  is  the 
latin  verb  Ugo,  to  tie  or  bind.  From  ligo,  comes  religo,  to  tie  or 
bind  over  again,   or   make  more   fast — from    religo,  comes  the 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  335 

substantive  re/jo'i'o,  which,  with  the  addition  of  n  makes  the  Englisn 
substantive  religion.  The  French  use  the  word  properly — when 
a  woman  enters  a  convent  she  is  called  a  noviciat,  that  is,  she  is 
upon  trial  or  probation.  When  she  takes  the  oath,  she  is  called  a 
religieuse,  that  is,  she  is  tied  or  bound  by  that  oath  to  the  perform- 
ance of  it.  We  use  the  word  in  the  same  kind  of  sense  when  we 
say  we  will  religiously  perform  the  promise  that  we  make. 

But  the  word,  without  referring  to  its  etymology,  has,  in  the 
manner  it  is  used,  no  definitive  meaning,  because  it  does  not  desig- 
nate what  religion  a  man  is  of.  There  is  the  religion  of  the  Chi- 
nese, of  the  Tartars,  of  the  Bramins,  of  the  Persians,  of  the  Jews, 
of  the  Turks,  &c. 

The  word  Christianity  is  equally  as  vague  as  the  word  religion. 
No  two  sectaries  can  agree  what  it  is.  It  is  a  lo  here  and  lo  there. 
The  two  principal  sectaries.  Papists  and  Protestants,  have  often 
cut  each  other's  throats  about  it : — The  Papists  call  the  Protest- 
ants heretics,  and  the  Protestants  call  the  Papists  idolaters.  The 
minor  sectaries  have  shown  the  same  spirit  of  rancour,  but,  as  the 
civil  law  restrains  them  from  blood,  they  content  themselves  with 
preaching  damnation  against  each  other. 

The  w or difroteslant  has  a  positive  signification  in  the  sense  it  is 
used.  It  means  protesting  against  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  and 
this  is  the  only  article  in  which  the  protestants  agree.  In  every 
other  sense,  with  respect  to  religion,  the  word  protestant  is  as 
vague  as  the  word  christian.  When  we  say  an  episcopalian,  a 
presbytcrian,  a  baptist,  a  quaker,  we  know  what  those  persons  are, 
and  what  tenets  they  hold — but  when  we  say  a  christian,  we  know 
he  is  not  a  Jew  nor  a  Mahometan,  but  we  know  not  if  he  be  a 
trinitarian  or  an  anti-trinitarian,  a  believer  in  what  is  called  the  im- 
maculate conception,  or  a  disbeliever,  a  man  of  seven  sacraments, 
or  of  two  sacraments,  or  of  none.  The  word  christian  describes 
•what  a  man  is  not,  but  not  what  he  is. 

The  word  TJieology,  from  Theos,  the  Greek  word  for  God,  and 
meaning  the  study  and  knowledge  of  God,  is  a  word,  that  strictly 
speaking,  belongs  to  Thcists  or  Deists,  and  not  to  the  christians. 
The  head  of  the  christian  church  is  the  person  called  Christ — but 
the  head  of  the  church  of  the  Thcists,  or  Deists,  as  they  are  more 
commonly  called,  from  *Deiis,  the  latin  word  for  God,  is  God  him- 
self, and  therefore  the  word  Theology  belongs  to  that  church  which 
has  Theos,  or  God,  for  its  head,  and  not  to  the  christian  church 


336  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

which  has  the  person  called  Christ  for  its  head.  Their  technical 
word  IS  Christianity,  and  they  cannot  agree  what  Christianity  is. 

The  words  revealed  religion,  and  natural  religion,  require  also 
explanation.  They  are  both  invented  terms,  contrived  by  the 
church  for  the  support  of  pnest-craft.  With  respect  to  the  first, 
there  is  no  evidence  of  any  such  thing,  except  in  the  universal 
revelation  that  God  has  made  of  his  power,  his  wisdom,  his  good- 
ness, in  the  structure  of  the  universe,  and  in  all  the  works  of  crea- 
tion. We  have  no  cause  or  ground  from  any  thing  we  behold  in 
those  works,  to  suppose  God  would  deal  partially  by  mankind,  and 
reveal  knowledge  to  one  nation  and  withhold  it  from  another,  and 
then  damn  them  for  not  knowing  it.  The  sun  shines  an  equal 
quantity  of  light  all  over  the  world — and  mankind  in  all  ages  and 
countries  are  endued  with  reason,  and  blessed  with  sight,  to  read 
the  visible  works  of  God  in  the  creation,  and  so  intelligent  is  this 
oook  that  he  that  runs  may  read.  We  admire  the  wisdom  of  the 
ancients,  yet  they  had  no  bibles,  nor  books,  called  revelation. 
They  cultivated  the  reason  that  God  gave  them,  studied  him  in  his 
works,  and  arose  to  eminence. 

As  to  the  Bible,  whether  true  or  fabulous,  it  is  a  history,  and 
history  is  not  revelation.  If  Solomon  had  seven  hundred  wives, 
and  three  hundred  concubines,  and  if  Samson  slept  in  Delilah's 
]ap,  and  she  cut  his  hair  off,  the  relation  of  those  things  is  mere 
history,  that  needed  no  revelation  from  heaven  to  tell  it ;  neither 
does  it  need  any  revelation  to  tell  us  that  Samson  was  a  fool  for 
his  pains,  and  Solomon  too. 

As  to  the  expressions  so  often  used  in  the  Bible,  that  the  tvord 
of  the  Lord  came  to  such  an  one,  or  such  an  one,  it  was  the 
fashion  of  speaking  in  those  times,  like  the  expression  used  by  a 
quaker,  that  the  spirit  moveth  him,  or  that  used  by  priests,  that  they 
have  a  call.  We  ought  not  to  be  deceived  by  phrases  because 
they  are  ancient.  But  if  we  admit  the  supposition  that  God  would 
condescen.1  to  reveal  himself  in  words  we  ought  not  to  believe  it 
would  be  in  such  idle  and  profligate  stories  as  are  in  the  Bible,  and 
it  is  for  this  reason,  among  others  which  our  reverence  to  God  in- 
spires, that  the  Deists  deny  that  the  book  called  the  bible  is  the 
word  of  God,  or  that  it  is  revealed  religion. 

With  respect  to  the  term  natural  religion,  it  is,  upon  the  face  o* 
it,  the  opposite  of  artificial  religion,  and  it  is  impossible  for  any 
man  to  be  certain  that  what  is  called  revealed  religion,  is  not  arti- 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  337 

ficial.  Man  has  the  power  of  making  books,  inventing  stories 
of  God,  and  calling  them  revelation,  or  the  word  of  God.  The 
Koran  exists  as  an  instance  that  this  can  be  done,  and  we  must  be 
credulous  indeed  to  suppose  that  this  is  the  only  instance,  and  Ma- 
homet the  only  impostor.  The  Jews  could  match  him,  and  the 
church  of  Rome  could  overmatch  the  Jews.  The  Mahometans 
believe  the  Koran,  the  Christians  believe  the  Bible,  and  it  is  edu- 
cation makes  all  the  difference. 

Books,  whether  Bibles  or  Korans,  carry  no  evidence  of  being 
the  work  of  any  other  power  than  man.  It  is  only  that  which  man 
cannot  do  that  carries  the  evidence  of  being  the  work  of  a  superior 
power.  Man  could  not  invent  and  make  a  universe — he  could  not 
invent  nature,  for  nature  is  of  divine  origin.  It  is  the  laws  by 
which  the  universe  is  governed.  "^Tien,  therefore,  we  look  through 
nature  up  to  nature's  God,  we  are  in  the  right  road  of  happiness, 
but  when  we  trust  to  books  as  the  word  of  God,  and  confide  in 
them  as  revealed  religion,  we  are  afloat  on  the  ocean  of  uncer- 
tainty, and  shatter  into  contending  factions.  The  term,  therefore, 
natural  religion,  explains  itself  to  be  divine  religion,  and  the  term 
revealed  religion  involves  in  it  the  suspicion  of  being  artificial. 

To  show  the  necessity  of  understanding  the  meaning  of  words, 
I  will  mention  an  instance  of  a  minister,  I  believe  of  the  epis- 
cooalian  church  of  Newark,  in  Jersey.  He  wrote  and  published  a 
book,  and  entitled  it,  "  ^n  Antidote  to  Deism."  An  antidote  to 
Deism,  must  be  Atheism.  It  has  no  other  antidote — for  what  can 
be  an  antidote  to  the  belief  of  a  God,  but  the  disbelief  of  God. 
Under  the  tuition  of  such  pastors,  what  but  ignorance  and  false 
information  can  be  expected.  T.  P. 


OF  CAIN  AND  ABEL. 


The  story  of  Cain  and  Abel  is  told  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  Ge- 
nesis ;  Cain  was  the  elder  brother,  and  Abel  the  younger,  and 
Cain  killed   Abel.     The  Egyptian  story  of  Typhon  and  Osiris, 
and  the  Jewish  story,  in  Genesis,  of  Cain  and  AbeU  have  the  an 
43 


338  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

pearance  of  being  the  same  story  differently  told,  and  that  it  came 
originally  from  Egypt. 

In  the  Egyptian  story,  Typhon  and  Osiris  are  brothers  ;  Ty- 
phon  is  the  elder,  and  Osiris  the  younger,  and  Typhon  kills  Osiris. 
The  story  is  an  allegory  on  darkness  and  light  ;  Typhon,  the  elder 
brother,  is  darkness,  because  darkness  was  supposed  to  be  more 
ancient  than  light :  Osiris  is  the  good  light  who  rules  during  the 
summer  months,  and  brings  forth  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  is 
the  favourite,  as  Abel  is  said  to  have  been,  for  which  Typhon 
hates  him  ;  and  when  the  winter  comes,  and  cold  and  darkness 
overspread  the  earth,  Typhon  is  represented  as  having  killed 
Osiris  out  of  malice,  as  Cain  is  said  to  have  killed  Abel. 

The  two  stories  are  alike  in  their  circumstances  and  their  event, 
and  are  probably  but  the  same  story  ;  what  corroborates  this  opin- 
ion, is,  that  the  fifth  chapter  of  Genesis  historically  contradicts 
the  reality  of  the  story  of  Cain  and  Abel  in  the  fourth  chapter,  for 
though  the  name  of  Seth,  a  son  of  Adam,  is  mentioned  in  the 
fourth  chapter,  he  is  spoken  of  in  the  fifth  chapter  as  if  he  was 
the  first  born  of  Adam.     The  chapter  begins  thus  : — 

"  This  is  the  book  of  the  generations  of  Adam.  In  the  day  that 
God  created  man,  in  the  likeness  of  God  created  he  him.  Male 
and  female  created  he  them,  and  blessed  them,  and  called  their 
name  Adam  in  the  day  when  they  were  created.  And  Adam  lived 
an  hundred  and  thirty  years  and  begat  a  son,  in  his  own  likeness 
and  after  his  own  image,  and  called  his  name  Seth."  The  rest  of 
the  chapter  goes  on  with  the  genealogy. 

Any  body  reading  this  chapter,  cannot  suppose  there  were  any 
sons  born  before  Seth.  The  chapter  begins  with  what  is  called  the 
creation  of  Adam,  and  calls  itself  the  book  of  the  generations  of 
Adam,  yet  no  mention  is  made  of  such  persons  as  Cain  and  Abel ; 
one  thing,  however,  is  evident  on  the  face  of  these  two  chapters, 
which  is,  that  the  same  person  is  not  the  writer  of  both  ;  the  most 
blundering  historian  could  not  have  committed  himself  in  such  a 
manner. 

Though  I  look  on  every  thing  in  the  first  ten  chapters  of  Gene- 
sis to  be  fiction,  yet  fiction  historically  told  should  be  consistent 
whereas  these  two  chapters  are  not.  The  Cain  and  Abel  of  Gene- 
sis appear  to  be  no  other  than  the  ancient  Egyptian  story  of  Ty 
phon  and  Osiris,  the  darkness  and  the  light,  which  answered  very 
well  as  an  allegory  without  being  believed  as  a  fact. 


MISCELLANEOUS    FIECE3.  339 


THE  TOWER  OF  BABEL. 


The  story  of  the  tower  of  Babel  is  told  in  the  eleventh  chapter 
of  Genesis.  It  begins  thus  : — "  And  the  whole  earth  (it  was  but 
a  very  little  part  of  it  they  knew)  was  of  one  language  and  of  one 
speech. — And  it  came  to  pass  as  they  journeyed  from  the  east, 
that  they  found  a  plain  in  the  land  of  Shinar,  and  they  dwelt  there. 
— And  they  said  one  to  another,  go  to,  let  us  make  brick  and  burn 
them  thoroughly,  and  they  had  brick  for  stone,  and  slime  had  they 
for  mortar. — And  they  said  go  to,  let  us  build  us  a  city,  and  a  tow- 
er whose  top  may  reach  unto  heaven,  and  let  us  make  us  a  name, 
lest  we  be  scattered  abroad  upon  the  face  of  the  whole  earth. — And 
the  Lord  came  down  to  see  the  city  and  the  tower  which  the  chil- 
dren of  men  builded. — And  the  Lord  said,  behold  the  people  is 
one,  and  they  have  all  one  language,  and  this  they  begin  to  do, 
and  now  nothing  will  be  restrained  from  them  which  they  have 
imagined  to  do. — Go  to,  let  us  go  down  and  there  confound  their 
language,  that  they  may  not  understand  one  another's  speech. — 
So  (that  is,  by  that  means)  the  Lord  scattered  them  abroad  from 
thence  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and  they  left  off  building  the 
city." 

This  is  the  story,  and  a  very  foolish  inconsistent  story  it  is.  In 
the  first  place,  the  familiar  and  irreverend  manner  in  which  the 
Almighty  is  spoken  df  in  this  chapter,  is  offensive  to  a  serious 
mind.  As  to  the  project  of  building  a  tower  whose  top  should 
reach  to  heaven,  there  never  could  be  a  people  so  foolish  as  to 
have  such  a  notion  ;  but  to  represent  the  Almighty  as  jealous  of 
the  attempt,  as  the  writer  of  the  story  has  done,  is  adding  prophan- 
ation  to  folly,  "  Go  to,^^  says  the  builders,  "  let  us  build  us  a  tower 
whose  top  shall  reach  to  heaven."  "  Go  to,"  says  God,  "  let  us 
go  do\vn  and  confound  their  language."  This  quaintness  is  inde- 
cent, and  the  reason  given  for  it  is  worse,  for,  "  now  nothing  will 
be  restrained  from  them  which  they  have  imagined  to  do."  Thi« 
i«  representingthe  Almighty  as  jealous  of  their  getting  into  heaven. 


340  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES 

The  story  is  too  ridiculous,  even  as  a  fable,  to  account  for  the.  di 
versity  of  languages  in  the  world,  for  which  it  seems  to  have  beej 
intended. 

As  to  the  project  of  confounding  their  language  for  the  purpose 
of  making  them  separate,  it  is  altogether  inconsistent ;  because 
instead  of  producing  this  effect,  it  would,  by  increasing  their  diffi- 
culties, render  them  more  necessary  to  each  other,  and  cause  them 
to  keep  together.     "Where  could  they  go  to  better  themselves  ? 

Another  observation  upon  this  story  is,  the  inconsistency  of  it 
with  respect  to  the  opinion  that  the  bible  is  the  word  of  God  given 
for  the  information  of  mankind :  for  nothing  could  so  effectually 
prevent  such  a  word  being  known  by  mankind  as  confounding  t'neir 
language.  The  people,  who  after  this  spoke  different  languages, 
could  no  more  understand  such  a  word  generally,  than  the  builders 
of  Babel  could  understand  one  another.  It  would  have  been  ne- 
cessary, therefore,  had  such  word  ever  been  given  or  intended  to 
be  given,  that  the  whole  earth  should  be,  as  they  say  it  was  at  first, 
of  one  language  and  of  one  speech,  and  that  it  should  never  have 
been  confounded. 

The  case,  however,  is,  that  the  bible  will  not  bear  examination  in 
any  part  of  it,  which  it  would  do  if  it  was  the  word  of  God.  Those 
who  most  believe  it  are  those  who  know  least  about  it,  and  priests 
always  take  care  to  keep  the  inconsistent  and  contradictory  parts 
out  of  sight.  T.  P. 


Of  the  religion  of  Deism  compared  with  the  Christian  Religion, 
and  the  superiority  of  the  former  over  the  latter 


Every  person,  of  whatever  religious  denomination  he  may  be,  is 
a  Deist  in  the  first  article  of  his  Creed.  Deism,  from  the  Latin 
word  Dews,  God,  is  the  belief  of  a  God,  and  this  belief  is  the  first 
article  of  every  man's  creed. 

It  is  on  this  article,  universally  consented  to  by  all  mankind,  that 
the  Deist  builds  his  church,  and  here  he  rests.  "Whenever  we 
step  aside  from  this  article,  by  mixing  it  Avith  articles  of  human  in- 
vention, we  wonder  into  a  labyrinth  of  uncertainty  and  fable  and 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  341 

become  exposed  to  every  kind  of  imposition  by  pretenders  to  reve- 
lation. The  Persian  shows  the  Zendavista  of  Zoroaster,  the  law- 
giver of  Persia,  and  calls  it  the  divine  law  ;  the  Bramin  shows  the 
Shaster,  revealed,  he  says,  by  God  to  Brama,  and  given  to  him  out 
of  a  cloud  ;  the  Jew  shows  what  he  calls  the  law  of  Moses,  given, 
he  says,  by  God,  on  the  Mount  Sinai  ;  the  Christian  shows  a  col- 
lection of  books  and  epistles,  written  by  nobody  knows  who,  and 
called  the  New  Testament ;  and  the  Mahometan  shows  the  Koran, 
given,  he  says,  by  God  to  Mahomet  :  each  of  these  calls  itself 
revealed  religion,  and  the  only  true  word  of  God,  and  this  the  fol- 
lowers of  each  profess  to  believe  from  the  habit  of  education,  and 
each  believes  the  others  are  imposed  upon. 

But  when  the  divine  gift  of  reason  begins  to  expand  itself  in  the 
mind  and  calls  man  to  reflection,  he  then  reads  and  contemplates 
God  in  his  works,  and  not  in  the  books  pretending  to  be  revelation 
The  Creation  is  the  bible  of  the  true  believer  in  God.  Every 
thing  in  this  vast  volume  inspires  him  with  sublime  ideas  of  the 
Creator.  The  little  and  paltry,  and  often  obscene,  tales  of  the  bible 
sink  into  wretchedness  when  put  in  comparison  with  this  mighty 
work.  The  Deist  needs  none  of  those  tricks  and  shows  called 
piracies  to  confirm  his  faith,  for  what  can  be  a  greater  miracle 
than  the  Creation  itself,  and  his  own  existence. 

There  is  a  happiness  in  Deism,  when  rightly  understood,  that  is 
not  to  be  found  in  any  other  system  of  religion.  All  other  systems 
have  something  in  them  that  either  shock  our  reason,  or  are  repug- 
nant to  it,  and  man,  if  he  thinks  at  all,  must  stifle  his  reason  in 
drder  to  force  himself  to  believe  them.  But  in  Deism  our  reason 
and  our  belief  become  happily  united.  The  wonderful  structure 
of  the  universe,  and  every  thing  we  behold  in  the  system  of  the 
creation,  prove  to  us,  far  better  than  books  can  do,  the  existence  of 
a  God,  and  at  the  same  time  proclaim  his  attributes.  It  is  by  the 
exercise  of  our  reason  that  we  are  enabled  to  contemplate  God  in 
his  works,  and  imitate  him  in  his  ways.  When  we  see  his  care 
and  goodness  extended  over  all  his  creatures,  it  teaches  us  our 
duty  towards  each  other,  while  it  calls  forth  our  gratitude  to  him. 
It  is  by  forgetting  God  in  his  works,  and  running  after  the  books 
of  pretended  revelation  that  man  has  wandered  from  the  straight 
path  of  duty  and  happiness,  and  become  by  turns  the  victim  of 
doubt  and  the  dupe  of  delusion. 

Except  in  the  first  article  in  the  Christian  creed,  that  of  believing 


342  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

in  God,  there  is  not  an  article  in  it  but  fills  the  mind  with  doubt, 
as  to  the  truth  of  it,  the  instant  man  begins  to  think.  Now  every 
article  in  a  creed  that  is  necessary  to  the  happiness  and  salvation 
of  man,  ought  to  be  as  evident  to  the  reason  and  comprehension  of 
man  as  the  first  article  is,  for  God  has  not  given  us  reason  for  the 
purpose  of  confounding  us,  but  that  we  should  use  it  for  our  own 
happiness  and  his  glory.  , 

The  truth  of  the  first  article  is  proved  by  God  himself,  and  is 
universal  ;  for  the  creation  is  of  itself  demonstration  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  Creator.  But  the  second  article,  that  of  God's  begetting 
a  son,  is  not  proved  in  like  manner,  and  stands  on  no  other  autho- 
rity than  that  of  a  tale.  Certam  books  in  what  is  called  the  New 
Testament  tell  us  that  Joseph  dreamed  that  the  angel  told  him  so. 
(Matthew  chap  1.  ver.  20.)  "  And  behold  the  Angel  of  the  Lord 
appeared  to  Joseph,  in  a  dream,  saying,  Joseph,  thou  son  of  David, 
fear  not  to  take  unto  thee  Mary  thy  wife,  for  that  which  is  con 
ceived  in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  The  evidence  upon  this  ar- 
ticle bears  no  comparison  with  the  evidence  upon  the  first  article 
and  therefore  is  not  entitled  to  the  same  credit,  and  ought  not 
to  be  made  an  article  in  a  creed,  because  the  evidence  of  it  is  de- 
fective, and  what  evidence  there  is,  is  doubtful  and  suspicious. 
We  do  not  believe  the  first  article  on  the  authority  of  books, 
whether  called  Bibles  or  Korans,  nor  yet  on  the  visionary  authori- 
ty of  dreams,  but  on  the  authority  of  God's  own  visible  works  in 
the  creation.  The  nations  w!io  never  heard  of  such  books,  nor  of 
such  people  as  Jews,  Christians,  or  Mahometans,  believe  the  exist- 
ence of  a  God  as  fully  as  we  do,  because  it  is  self  evident.  The 
work  of  man's  hands  is  a  proof  of  the  existence  of  man  as  fully  as 
his  personal  appearance  would  be.  When  we  see  a  watch,  wo 
have  as  positive  evidence  of  the  existence  of  a  watch-maker,  as 
if  we  saw  him  ;  and  in  like  manner  the  creation  is  evidence  to  our 
reason  and  our  senses  of  the  existence  of  a  Creator.  But  thero 
is  nothing  in  the  works  of  God  that  is  evidence  that  he  begat  a  son, 
nor  any  thing  in  the  system  of  creation  that  corroborates  such  an 
idea,  and,  therefore,  we  are  not  authorized  in  believing  it. 

But  presumption  can  assume  any  thing,  and  therefore  it  makes 
Joseph's  dream  to  be  of  equal  authority  with  the  existence  of  God, 
and  to  help  it  on  calls  it  revelation.  It  is  impossible  for  the  mind 
of  man  in  its  serious  moments,  however  it  may  have  been  entang- 
led by  education,  or  beset  by  priest-craft,  not  to  stand  still  and 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  34S 

Houbt  upon  the  truth  of  this  article  and  of  its  creed.  But  this  is 
not  all. 

The  second  article  of  the  Christian  creed  having  brought  the 
son  of  Mary  into  the  world,  (and  this  Mary,  according  to  the  chro- 
nological tables,  was  a  girl  of  only  fifteen  years  of  age  when  this 
son  was  born,)  the  next  article  goes  on  to  account  for  his  being 
begotten,  which  was,  that  when  he  grew  a  man  he  should  be  put  to 
death,  to  expiate,  they  say,  the  sin  that  Adam  brought  into  the 
world  by  eating  an  apple  or  some  kind  of  forbidden  fruit. 

But  though  this  is  the  creed  of  the  church  of  Rome,  from 
whence  the  protestants  borrowed  it,  it  is  a  creed  which  that  church 
has  manufactured  of  itself,  for  it  is  not  contained  in,  nor  derived 
from,  the  book  called  the  New  Testament.  The  four  books  cal- 
led the  Evangelists,  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John,  which  give, 
or  pretend  to  give,  the  birth,  sayings,  life,  preaching,  and  death  of 
Jesus  Christ,  make  no  mention  of  what  is  called  the  fall  of  man  ; 
nor  is  the  name  of  Adam  to  be  found  in  any  of  those  books,  which 
it  certainly  would  be  if  the  writers  of  them  believed  that  Jesus  was 
begotten,  born,  and  died  for  the  purpose  of  redeeming  mankind 
from  the  sin  which  Adam  had  brought  into  the  world.  Jesus  never 
speaks  of  Adam  himself,  of  the  Garden  of  Eden,  nor  of  what  is 
called  the  fall  of  man. 

But  the  Church  of  Rome  having  set  up  its  new  religion  which  it 
called  Christianity,  and  invented  the  creed  which  it  named  the 
apostles'  creed,  in  which  it  calls  Jesus  the  only  son  of  God,  con- 
ceived, by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  bor7i  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  things  of 
which  it  is  impossible  that  man  or  woman  can  have  any  idea,  and 
consequently  no  belief  but  in  words  ;  and  for  which  there  is  no  au- 
thority but  the  idle  story  of  Joseph's  dream  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Matthew,  which  any  designing  imposter  or  foolish  fanatic  might 
make.  It  then  manufactured  the  allegories  in  the  book  of  Genesis, 
,into  fact,  and  the  allegorical  tree  of  life  and  the  tree  of  knowledge 
into  real  trees,  contrary  to  the  belief  of  the  first  christians,  and  for 
which  there  is  not  the  least  authority  in  any  of  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament ;  for  in  none  of  them  is  there  any  mention  made 
of  such  place  as  the  Garden  of  Eden,  nor  of  any  thing  that  is  said 
to  have  happened  there. 

But  the  church  of  Rome  could  not  erect  the  person  called  Jesus 
into  a  Saviour  of  the  world  without  making  the  allegories  in  the 
book  of  Genesis  into  fact,  though  the  New  Testament,  as  before 


344  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

observed,  gives  no  authority  for  it.  All  at  once  the  allegorical 
tree  of  knowledge  became,  according  to  the  church,  a  real  tree,  the 
fruit  of  it  real  fruit,  and  the  eating  of  it  sinful.  As  priest-craft  was 
always  the  enemy  of  knowledge,  because  priest-craft  supports 
itself  by  keeping  people  in  delusion  and  ignorance,  it  was  consist- 
ent with  its  policy  to  make  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  a  real 
sin. 

The  church  of  Rome  having  done  this,  it  then  brings  forward 
Jesus  the  son  of  Mary  as  suffering  death  to  redeem  mankind  from 
sin,  which  Adam,  it  says,  had  brought  into  the  world  by  eating  the 
fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge.  But  as  it  is  impossible  for  reason 
to  believe  such  a  story,  because  it  can  see  no  reason  for  it,  nor 
have  any  evidence  of  it,  the  church  then  tells  us  we  must  not  re- 
gard our  reason  but  must  believe,  as  it  were,  and  that  through  thick 
and  thin,  as  if  God  had  given  man  reason  like  a  plaything,  or  a 
rattle,  on  purpose  to  make  fun  of  him.  Reason  is  the  forbidden 
tree  of  priest-craft,  and  may  serve  to  explain  the  allegory  of  the 
forbidden  tree  of  knowledge,  for  we  may  reasonably  suppose  the 
allegory  had  some  meaning  and  application  at  the  time  it  was  in- 
vented. It  was  the  practice  of  the  eastern  nations  to  convey  their 
nieanmg  by  allegory,  and  relate  it  in  the  manner  of  fact.  Jesus 
followed  the  same  method,  yet  nobody  ever  supposed  the  allegory 
or  parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus,  the  prodigal  sun,  the 
ten  virgins,  &c.  were  facts.  Why  then  should  the  tree  of  know- 
ledge, which  is  far  more  romantic  in  idea  than  the  parables  in  the 
New  Testament  are,  be  supposed  to  be  a  real  tree.*  The  answer 
to  this  is,  because  the  church  could  not  make  its  new  fangled  sys- 
tem, which  it  called  Christianity,  hold  together  without  it.  To 
have  made  Christ  to  die  on  account  of  an  allegorical  tree  would 
have  been  too  bare-faced  a  fable. 

But  the  account,  as  it  is  given  of  Jesus  in  the  New  Testament, 
even  visionary  as  it  is,  does  not  support  the  creed  of  the  church 
that  he  died  for  the  redemption  of  the  world.  According  to  that 
account  he  was  crucified  and  buried  on  the  Friday,  and  rose  again 
in  good  health  on  the  Sunday  morning,  for  we  do  not  hear  that  he 
was  sick.     This  cannot  be  called  dying,  and  is  rather  making  fun 


*  The  remark  of  the  Emperor  Julien,  on  the  story  of  The  tree  of  Knowledge 
is  worth  observing.  "  If,"said  he,  "  there  ever  had  been,  or  could  be,  a  Tree  of 
Knowledge,  instead  of  God  forbidding  man  to  eat  thereof,  it  would  be  that  of 
wlii-.h  he  WMild  order  hin^  to  eat  the  most." 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  345 

of  death  than  suflTering  it.  There  are  thousands  of  men  and  women 
also,  who  if  they  could  know  they  should  come  back  again  in  good 
aealth  in  about  thirty-six  hours,  would  prefer  such  kind  of  death 
for  the  sake  of  the  experiment,  and  to  know  what  the  other  side  of 
the  grave  was.  Why  then  should  that  which  would  be  only  a  voy- 
age of  curious  amusement  to  us  be  magnified  into  merit  and  suf- 
fering in  him  ?  If  a  God  he  could  not  suffer  death,  for  immortality 
cannot  die,  and  as  a  man  his  death  could  be  no  more  than  the 
death  of  any  other  person. 

The  belief  of  the  redemption  of  Jesus  Christ  is  altogether  an 
invention  of  the  church  of  Rome,  not  the  doctrine  of  the  New 
Testament.  What  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  attempted 
to  prove  by  the  story  of  Jesus  is  the  resurrection  of  the  same  body 
from  the  grave,  which  was  the  belief  of  the  Pharisees,  in  opposition 
to  the  Sadducees  (a  sect  of  Jews)  who  denied  it.  Paul,  who  was 
brought  up  a  Pharisee,  labours  hard  at  this  point,  for  it  was  the 
creed  of  his  own  Pharisaical  church.  The  XV  chap.  1st  of  Corin- 
thians is  full  of  supposed  cases  and  assertions  about  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  same  body,  but  there  is  not  a  word  in  it  about  redemp- 
tion. This  chapter  makes  part  of  the  funeral  senice  of  the  Epis- 
copal church.  The  dogma  of  the  redemption  is  the  fable  of  priest- 
craft invented  since  the  time  the  NewTestament  was  compiled,  and 
the  agreeable  delusion  of  it  suited  with  the  depravity  of  immoral 
livers.  When  men  are  taught  to  ascribe  all  their  crimes  and  vices  to 
the  temptations  of  the  Devil,  and  to  believe  that  Jesus,  by  his  death, 
rubs  all  off  and  pays  their  passage  to  heaven  gratis,  they  become 
as  careless  in  morals  as  a  spendthrift  would  be  of  money,  were  he 
told  that  his  father  had  engaged  to  pay  off  all  his  scores.  It  is  d 
doctrine,  not  only  dangerous  to  morals  in  this  world,  but  to  our 
happiness  in  the  next  world,  because  it  holds  out  such  a  cheap 
easy,  and  lazy  way  of  getting  to  heaven  as  has  a  tendency  to  in- 
duce men  to  hug  the  delusion  of  it  to  their  own  injury. 

But  there  are  times  when  men  have  serious  thoughts,  and  it  is 
at  such  times,  when  they  begin  to  think,  that  they  begin  to  doubt 
the  truth  of  the  Christian  Religion,  and  well  they  may,  for  it  is  too 
fanciful  and  too  full  of  conjecture,  inconsistency,  improbability, 
and  irrationality,  to  afford  consolation  to  the  thoughtful  man. 
His  reason  revolts  against  his  creed.  He  sees  that  none  of  its 
articles  are  proved,  or  can  be  proved.  He  may  believe  that  such 
a  person  -y.s  is  called  Jesus  (for  Christ  was  not  his  name)  was 
44 


346  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

born  and  grew  to  be  a  man,  because  it  is  no  more  than  a  natural 
and  probable  case.  But  who  is  to  prove  he  is  the  son  of  God, 
that  he  was  begotten  by  the  Holy  Ghost  1  Of  these  things 
there  can  be  no  proof;  and  that  which  admits  not  of  proof, 
and  is  against  the  laws  of  probability,  and  the  order  of  nature 
which  God  himself  has  established,  is  not  an  object  for  belief. 
God  has  not  given  man  reason  to  embarrass  him,  but  to  prove 
his  being  imposed  upon. 

He  may  believe  that  Jesus  was  crucified,  because  many  others 
were  crucified,  but  who  is  to  prove  he  was  crucified /or  the  sins  of 
the  ivorld  ?  This  article  has  no  evidence,  not  even  in  the  New 
Testament ;  and  if  it  had  where  is  the  proof  that  the  New  Tes- 
tament, in  relating  things  neither  probable  nor  proveable,  is  to  be 
believed  as  true  1  When  an  article  in  a  creed  does  not  admit  of 
proof  nor  of  probability,  the  salvo  is  to  call  it  revelation  ;  but  this 
is  only  putting  one  difficulty  in  the  place  of  another,  for  it  is  as 
impossible  to  prove  a  thing  to  be  revelation  as  it  is  to  prove  that  ' 
Mary  was  gotten  with  child  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Here  it  is  that  the  religion  of  Deism  is  superior  to  the  Christian 
religion.  It  is  free  from  all  those  invented  and  torturing  articles 
that  shock  our  reason  or  injure  our  humanity,  and  with  which  the 
Christian  religion  abounds.  Its  creed  is  pure  and  sublimely 
simple.  It  believes  in  God  and  there  it  rests.  It  honours  reason 
as  the  choicest  gift  of  God  to  man,  and  the  faculty  by  which  he  is 
enabled  to  contemplate  the  power,  wisdom  and  goodness  of  the 
Creator  displayed  in  the  creation  ;  and  reposing  itself  on  his 
protection,  both  here  and  hereafter,  it  avoids  all  presumptuous 
beliefs,  and  rejects,  as  the  fabulous  inventions  of  men,  all  books 
pretending  to  revelation. 

T    P. 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  347 


TO  THE  MEMBERS  OF  THE  SOCIETY,  STYLING 
ITSELF  THE  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY. 


The  J^ew-York  Gazette  of  the  I6lh  {August)  contains  the  folloW' 
ing  article — "  On  Tuesday,  a  committee  of  the  Missionary 
Society,  consisting  chiefly  of  distinguished  Clergymen,  had  an 
interview,  at  the  City  Hotel,  ivith  the  chiefs  of  the  Osage  tribe 
of  Indians,  71010  in  this  City,  {JVeiv-York)  to  whom  they  pre- 
sented a  Bible,  together  with  an  Address,  the  object  of  which 
was,  to  inform  them  that  this  good  book  contained  the  will 
and  laws  of  the  GREAT  SPIRIT." 


It  is  to  be  hoped  some  humane  person  will,  on  account  of  our 
people  on  the  frontiers,  as  well  as  of  the  Indians,  undeceive  them 
with  respect  to  the  present  the  Missionaries  have  made  them,  and 
which  they  call  a  good  book,  containing,  they  say,  the  will  and 
laws  of  the  GREAT  SPIRIT.  Can  those  Missionaries  suppose 
that  the  assassination  of  men,  women,  and  children,  and  sucking 
infants,  related  in  the  books  ascribed  to  Moses,  Joshua,  &c.  and 
blasphemously  said  to  be  done  by  the  command  of  the  Lord,  the 
Great  Spirit,  can  be  edifying  to  our  Indian  neighbours,  or  advan- 
tageous to  us  1  Is  not  the  Bible  warfare  the  same  kind  of  warfare 
as  the  Indians  themselves  carry  on,  that  of  indiscriminate  destruc- 
tion, and  against  which  humanity  shudders  ;  can  the  horrid  exam- 
ples and  vulgar  obscenity,  with  which  the  Bible  abounds,  improve 
the  morals  or  civilize  the  manners  of  the  Indians?  Will  they  learn 
sobriety  and  decency  from  drunken  Noah  and  beastly  Lot ;  or  will 
their  daughters  be  edified  by  the  example  of  Lot's  daughters  ? 
"Will  the  prisoners  they  take  in  war  be  treated- the  better  by  their 
knowing  the  horrid  story  of  Samuel's  hewing  Agag  in  pieces  like 
a  block  of  wood,  or  David's  putting  them  under  harrows  of  iron  ? 
Will  not  the  shocking  accounts  of  the  destruction  of  the  Cana- 


348  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

anites,  when  the  Israelites  invaded  their  country,  suggest  the  idea 
that  we  may  serve  them  in  the  same  manner,  or  the  accounts  stir 
them  up  to  do  the  like  to  our  people  on  the  frontiers,  and  then 
justify  the  assassination  by  the  Bible  the  Missionaries  have  given 
them  1  Will  those  Missionary  Societies  never  leave  off  doing 
mischief? 

In  the  account  which  this  missionary  committee  give  of  their 
interview,  they  make  the  chief  of  the  Indians  to  say,  that,  "  as 
neither  he  nor  his  people  could  read  it,  he  begged  that  some  good 
white  man  might  be  sent  to  instruct  them." 

It  is  necessary  the  General  Government  keep  a  strict  eye  over 
those  Missionary  Societies,  who,  under  the  pretence  of  instructing 
the  Indians,  send  spies  into  their  country  to  find  out  the  best  lands. 
No  society  should  be  permitted  to  have  intercourse  with  the  Indian 
tribes,  nor  send  any  person  among  them,  but  with  the  knowledge 
and  consent  of  the  Government.  The  present  administration 
has  brought  the  Indians  into  a  good  disposition,  and  is  improving 
them  in  the  moral  and  civil  comforts  of  life  ;  but  if  these  self- 
created  societies  be  suffered  to  interfere,  and  send  their  specula- 
ting Missionaries  among  them,  the  laudable  object  of  government 
will  be  defeated.  Priests,  we  know,  are  not  remarkable  for  doing 
any  thing  gratis  ;  they  have  in  general  some  scheme  in  every  thing 
they  do,  either  to  impose  on  the  ignorant,  or  derange  the  opera- 
tions of  government. 

A  FRIEND  TO  THE  INDIANS. 


OF  THE  SABBATH  DAY  OF  CONNECTICUT 


The  word  Sabbath,  means  rest,  that  is,  cessation  from  laboui  ; 
but  the  stupid  Blue  Laws*  of  Connecticut  make  a  labour  of  rest, 
for  they  oblige  a  person  to  sit  still  from  sun-rise  to  sun-se*  on  a 
Sabbath  day,  which  is  hard  work.     Fanaticism  made  those  laws, 

*  They  wore  called  Blue  Laws  because  they  were  originally  printed  onbluj 
paper. 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 


349 


and  hypocrisy  pretends  to  reverence  them,  for  where  &uch  laws 
prevail  hypocrisy  will  prevail  also. 

One  of  those  laws  says,  "  No  person  shall  run  on  a  Sabbath- 
day,  nor  walk  in  his  garden,  nor  elsewhere,  but  reverently  to  and 
from  meeting."  These  fanatical  hypocrites  forgot  that  God  dwells 
not  in  temples  made  with  hands,  and  that  the  earth  is  full  of  his 
glory.  One  of  the  finest  scenes  and  subjects  of  religious  con- 
templation is  to  walk  into  the  woods  and  fields,  and  survey  the 
works  of  the  God  of  the  Creation.  The  wide  expanse  of  heaven, 
the  earth  covered  with  verdure,  the  lofty  forest,  the  waving  corn, 
the  magnificent  roll  of  mighty  rivers,  and  the  murmuring  melody 
of  the  cheerful  brooks,  are  scenes  that  inspire  the  mind  with  grati- 
tude and  delight :  but  this  the  gloomy  Calvinist  of  Connecticut, 
must  not  behold  on  a  Sabbath-day.  Entombed  within  the  walls 
of  his  dwelling,  he  shuts  from  his  view  the  temple  of  creation. 
The  sun  shines  no  joy  to  him.  The  gladdening  voice  of  nature 
calls  on  him  in  vain.  He  is  deaf,  dumb,  and  blind  to  every  thing 
around  him  that  God  has  made.  Such  is  the  Sabbath-day  of  Con- 
necticut. 

From  whence  could  come  this  miserable  notion  of  devotion? 
It  comes  from  the  gloominess  of  the  Calvinistic  creed.  If  men 
love  darkness  rather  than  light,  because  their  works  are  evil,  the 
ulcerated  mind  of  a  Calvinist,  who  sees  God  only  in  terror,  and 
sits  brooding  over  the  scenes  of  hell  and  damnation,  can  have  no 
joy  in  beholding  the  glories  of  the  creation.  Nothing  in  that 
mighty  and  wondrous  system  accords  with  liis  principles  or  his 
devotion.  He  sees  nothing  there  that  tells  him  that  God  created 
millions  on  purpose  to  be  damned,  and  that  the  children  of  a  span 
long  are  born  to  burn  forever  in  hell.  The  creation  preaches  a 
different  doctrine  to  this.  We  there  see  that  the  care  and  good- 
ness of  God  is  extended  impartially  over  all  the  creatures  he  has 
made.  The  worm  of  the  earth  shares  his  protection  equally  with 
the  elephant  of  the  desert.  The  grass  that  springs  beneath  our 
feet  grows  by  his  bounty  as  well  as  the  cedars  of  Lebanon.  Every 
thing  in  the  Creation  reproaches  the  Calvinist  with  unjust  ideas  ot 
God,  and  disowns  the  hardness  and  ingratitude  of  his  principles. 
Therefore  he  shuns  the  sight  of  them  on  a  Sabbath-day. 

AN  ENEMY  TO  CANT  AND  IMPOSITION. 


i50  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 


OF  THE  OLD  AND  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


Archbishop  Tillotson  says,  "  The  difference  between  the  style 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  is  so  very  remarkable,  that  one  of 
the  greatest  sects  in  the  primitive  times,  did,  upon  this  very  ground, 
found  their  heresy  of  two  Gods,  the  one  evil,  fierce,  and  cruel, 
whom  they  called  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament ;  the  other  good, 
kind,  and  merciful,  whom  they  called  the  God  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  so  great  a  difference  is  there  between  the  representations 
that  are  given  of  God  in  the  books  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
Religion,  as  to  give,  at  least,  some  colour  and  pretence  to  an  ima- 
gination of  two  Gods."     Thus  far  Tillotson. 

But  the  case  was,  that  as  the  Church  had  picked  out  several 
passages  from  the  Old  Testament,  which  she  most  absurdly  and 
falsely  calls  prophecies  of  Jesus  Christ,  (whereas  there  is  no  pro- 
phecy of  any  such  person,  as  any  one  may  see  by  examining  the 
passages  and  the  cases  to  which  they  apply,)  she  was  under  the 
necessity  of  keeping  up  the  credit  of  the  Old  Testament,  because 
if  that  fell  the  other  would  soon  follow,  and  the  Christian  system 
of  faith  would  soon  be  at  an  end.  As  a  book  of  morals,  there  are 
several  parts  of  the  New  Testament  that  are  good  ;  but  they  are 
no  other  than  what  had  been  preached  in  the  Eastern  world  seve- 
ral hundred  years  before  Christ  was  born.  Confucius,  the  Chi- 
nese philosopher,  who  lived  five  hundred  years  before  the  time  of 
Christ,  says,  acknowledge  thij  benefits  by  the  return  of  benefits  but 
never  revenge  injuries. 

The  clergy  in  Popish  countries  were  cunning  enough  to  know, 
that  if  the  Old  Testament  was  made  public,  the  fallacy  of  the 
New,  with  respect  to  Christ,  would  be  detected,  and  they  pro- 
hibited the  use  of  it,  and  always  took  it  away  wherever  they  found 
it.  The  Deists,  on  the  contrary,  always  encouraged  the  reading 
it,  that  people  might  see  and  judge  for  themselves,  that  a  book  so 
full  of  contradictions  and  wickedness,  could  not  be  the  word  of 
God,  and  that  we  dishonour  God  by  ascribing  it  to  him. 

A  TRUE  DEIST. 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  351 


Hinls  toicaras  fotming  a  Sociefy  for  inquiring  into  the  truth  or 
falsehood  of  ancient  hislory,  so  far  as  history  is  co)inected  with 
systems  of  religion  ancient  and  modern. 


It  has  been  customary  to  class  history  into  three  divisions,  dis- 
tinguished by  the  names  of  Sacred,  Profane,  and  Ecclesiastical. 
By  the  first  is  meant  the  Bible ;  by  the  second,  the  history  of 
nations,  of  men  and  things  ;  and  by  the  third,  the  history  of  the 
church  and  its  priesthood. 

Nothing  is  more  easy  than  to  give  names,  and,  therefore,  mere 
names  signify  nothing  unless  they  lead  to  the  discovery  of  some 
cause  for  which  that  name  was  given.  For  example,  Sunday  is 
the  name  given  to  the  first  day  of  the  week,  in  the  English  lan- 
guage, and  it  is  the  same  in  the  Latin,  that  is,  it  has  the  same 
meaning,  {Dies  solis,)  and  also  in  the  German,  and  in  several  other 
languages.  Why  then  was  this  name  given  to  that  day?  Because  it 
was  the  day  dedicated  by  the  ancient  world  to  the  luminary,  which 
in  English  we  call  the  Sun,  and,  therefore,  the  day  Sun-day,  or  the 
day  of  the  Sun  ;  as  in  the  like  manner  we  call  the  second  day 
Monday,  the  day  dedicated  to  the  Moon. 

Here  the  name  Sunday,  leads  to  the  cause  of  its  being  called 
so,  and  we  have  visible  evidence  of  the  fact,  because  we  behold 
the  Sun  from  whence  the  name  comes  ;  but  this  is  not  the  case  when 
we  distinguish  one  part  of  history  from  another  by  the  name  of 
Sacred.  All  histories  have  been  written  by  men.  We  have  no 
evidence,  nor  any  cause  to  believe,  that  any  have  been  written  by 
God.  That  part  of  the  Bible  called  the  Old  Testament,  is  the 
history  of  the  Jewish  nation,  from  the  time  of  Abraham,  which  be- 
gins in  the  11th  chap,  of  Genesis,  to  the  downfall  of  that  nation 
by  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  is  no  more  entitled  to  be  called  sacred 
than  any  other  history.  It  is  altogether  the  contrivance  of  priest- 
craft that  has  given  it  that  name.  So  far  from  its  being  sacred^ 
it  has  not  the  appearance  of  being  true  in  many  of  the  things  it 
relates.  It  must  be  better  authority  than  a  book,  which  any  im- 
postor might  make,  as  Mahomet  made  the  Koran,  to  make  a 
thoughtful  man  believe  that  the  sun  and  moon  stood  still,  or  that 


352  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

Moses  and  Aaron  turned  the  Nile,  which  is  larger  than  the  Dela- 
waie,  into  blood,  and  that  the  Egyptian  magicians  did  the  same. 
Those  things  have  too  much  the  appearance  of  romance  to  be  be- 
'ie\ed  for  fact. 

I*  would  be  of  use  to  inquire,  and  ascertain  the  time,  when  that 
part  of  the  Bible  called  the  Old  Testament  first  appeared.  From 
all  that  can  be  collected  there  was  no  such  book  till  after  the  Jews 
returned  from  captivity  in  Babylon,  and  that  it  is  the  work  of  the 
Pharisees  of  the  Second  Temple.  How  they  came  to  make  the 
19th  chapter  of  the  2d  book  of  Kings,  and  the  37th  of  Isaiah,  word 
for  word  alike,  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  their  having  no  plan 
to  go  by,  and  not  knowing  what  they  were  about.  The  same  is 
the  case  with  respect  to  the  last  verses  in  the  2d  book  of  Chro- 
nicles, and  the  first  verses  in  Ezra,  they  also  are  word  for  word 
alike,  which  shows  that  the  Bible  has  been  put  together  at  random. 

But  besides  these  things  there  is  great  reason  to  believe  we  have 
been  imposed  upon,  with  respect  to  the  antiquity  of  the  Bible,  and 
especially  with  respect  to  the  books  ascribed  to  Moses.  Herodo- 
tus, who  is  called  the  father  of  history,  and  is  the  most  ancient 
historian  whose  works  have  reached  to  our  time,  and  who  travelled 
into  Egypt,  conversed  with  the  priests,  historians,  astronomers, 
and  learned  men  of  that  country,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  all 
the  information  of  it  he  could,  and  who  gives  an  account  of  the 
ancient  state  of  it,  makes  no  mention  of  such  a  man  as  Moses, 
though  the  Bible  makes  him  to  have  been  the  greatest  hero  there, 
nor  of  any  one  circumstance  mentioned  in  the  book  of  Exodus, 
respecting  Egypt,  such  as  turning  the  rivers  into  blood,  the  dust 
into  lice,  the  death  of  the  first  born  throughout  all  the  land  of 
Egypt,  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  the  drowning  of  Pharaoh  and 
all  his  host,  things  which  could  not  have  been  a  secret  in  Egypt, 
and  must  have  been  generally  known,  had  they  been  facts  ;  and, 
therefore,  as  no  such  things  were  known  in  Egypt,  nor  any  such 
man  as  Moses,  at  the  time  Herodotus  was  there,  which  is  about 
two  thousand  two  hundred  years  ago,  it  shows  that  the  account  of 
these  things  in  the  books  ascribed  to  Moses  is  a  made  story  of  later 
times,  that  is,  after  the  return  of  the  Jews  from  the  Babylonian 
captivity,  and  that  Moses  is  not  the  author  of  the  books  ascribed 
to  him. 

With  respect  to  the  cosmogony,  or  account  of  the  creation,  in 
the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  in  the  secon^ 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES  3531 

chapter,  and  of  what  is  called  the  fall  of  man  in  the  third  chapter, 
there  is  something  concerning  them  we  are  not  historically  ac- 
quainted with.  In  none  of  the  books  of  the  Bible,  after  Genpsis, 
are  any  of  these  things  mentioned,  or  even  alluded  to.  How  is  tnis 
to  be  accounted  for  ?  The  obvious  inference  is,  that  either  they 
were  not  known,  or  not  believed  to  be  facts,  by  the  writers  of  the 
other  books  of  the  Bible,  and  that  Moses  is  not  the  author  of  the 
chapters  where  these  accounts  are  given. 

The  next  question  on  the  case  is,  how  did  the  Jews  come  by 
these  notions,  and  at  what  time  were  they  written. 

To  answer  this  question  we  must  first  consider  what  the  state  of 
the  world  was  at  the  time  the  Jews  began  to  be  a  people,  for  the 
Jews  are  but  a  modern  race  compared  with  the  antiquity  of  other 
nations.  At  the  time  there  were,  even  by  their  own  account,  but 
thirteen  Jews  or  Israelites  in  the  world,  Jacob  and  liis  twelve  sons, 
and  four  of  these  were  bastards,  the  nations  of  Egypt,  Chaldea, 
Persia,  and  India,  were  great  and  populous,  abounding  in  learning 
and  science,  particularly  in  the  knowledge  of  astronomy,  of  which 
the  Jews  were  always  ignorant.  The  chronological  tables  men- 
tion, that  ecHpses  were  observed  at  Babylon  above  two  thousand 
years  before  the  Christian  era,  which  was  before  there  was  a  single 
Jew  or  Israelite  in  the  world. 

All  those  ancient  nations  had  their  cosmogonies,  that  is,  their 
accounts  how  the  creation  was  made,  long  before  there  was  such 
people  as  Jews  or  Israelites.  An  account  of  these  cosmogonies 
of  India  and  Persia,  is  given  by  Henry  Lord,  Chaplain  to  the  East 
India  Company,  at  Surat,  and  published  in  London  in  1630.  The 
writer  of  this  has  seen  a  copy  of  the  edition  of  1630,  and  made  ex- 
tracts from  it.  The  work,  which  is  now  scarce,  was  dedicated' 
by  Lord  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

"We  know  that  the  Jews  were  carried  captive  into  Babylon,  by 
Nebuchadnezzar,  and  remained  in  captivity  several  years,  when 
they  were  liberated  by  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia.  During  their  cap- 
tivity they  would  have  had  an  opportunity  of  acquiring  some  know- 
ledge of  the  cosmogony  of  the  Persians,  or  at  least  of  getting  some 
ideas  how  to  fabricate  one  to  put  at  the  head  of  their  own  history 
after  their  return  from  captivity.  This  will  account  for  the  cause, 
for  some  cause  there  must  have  been,  that  no  mention,  nor  refer- 
ence is  made  to  the  cosmogony  in  Genesis  in  any  of  the  books  of 
45 


354  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

the  Bible,  supposed  to  have  been  written  before  the  captivity,  nor 
is  the  name  of  Adam  to  be  found  in  any  of  those  books. 

The  books  of  Chronicles  were  written  after  the  return  of  tne 
Jews  from  captivity,  for  the  third  chapter  of  the  first  book  gives  a 
list  of  all  the  Jewish  kings  from  David  to  Zedekiah,  who  was  car- 
ried captive  into  Babylon,  and  to  four  generation-s  beyond  the  time 
of  Zedekiah.  In  the  first  verse  of  the  first  chapter  of  this  book 
the  name  of  Adam  is  mentioned,  but  not  in  any  book  in  the  Bible, 
written  before  that  time,  nor  could  it  be,  for  Adam  and  Eve  are 
names  taken  from  the  cosmogony  of  the  Persians.  Henry  Lord, 
in  his  book,  written  from  Sural,  and  dedicated,  as  I  have  already 
said,  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  says,  that  in  the  Persian 
cosmogony,  the  name  of  the  first  man  was  Adamoh,  and  of  the 
woman  Hevah.*  From  hence  comes  the  Adam  and  Eve  of  the 
book  of  Genesis.  In  the  cosmogony  of  India,  of  which  I  shall 
speak  in  a  future  number,  the  name  of  the  first  man  was  Pourous, 
and  of  the  woman  Parcoutee.  We  want  a  knowledge  of  the  San- 
scrit language  of  India  to  understand  the  meaning  of  the  names, 
and  I  mention  it  in  this  place,  only  to  show  that  it  is  from  the  cos- 
mogony of  Persia,  rather  than  that  of  India,  that  the  cosmogony  in 
Genesis  has  been  fabricated  by  the  Jews,  who  returned  from  cap- 
tivity by  the  liberality  of  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia.  There  is,  however 
reason  to  conclude,  on  the  authority  of  Sir  William  Jones,  who 
resided  several  years  in  India,  that  these  names  were  very  expres- 
sive in  the  language  to  which  they  belonged,  for  in  speaking  of 
this  language,  he  says,  (see  the  Asiatic  researches,)  "  The  Sanscrit 
language,  whatever  be  its  antiquity,  is  of  wonderful  structure  ;  it 
is  more  perfect  than  the  Greek,  more  copious  than  the  Latin,  and 
more  exquisitely  refined  than  either." 

These  hints,  which  are  intended  to  be  continued,  will  serve  to 
show  that  a  society  for  inquiring  into  the  ancient  state  of  the  world, 
and  the  state  of  ancient  history,  so  far  as  history  is  connected  with 
systems  of  religion  ancient  and  modern,  may  become  a  useful  and 
instructive  institution.  There  is  good  reason  to  believe  we  have 
been  in  great  error,  with  respect  to  the  antiquity  of  the  Bible,  as 
well  as  imposed  upon  by  its  contents.  Truth  ought  to  be  the  ob 
ject  of  every  man ;  for  without  truth  there  can  be  no  real  happiness 

•  In  an  English  edition  of  the  Bible,  in  1583,  the  first  woman  is  calkl  H©- 
^w^a  Editor  of  the  Prospect. 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  355 

to  a  thoughtful  mind,  or  any  assurance  of  happiness  hereafter.  It 
is  the  duty  of  man  to  obtain  all  the  knowledge  he  can,  and  then 
make  the  best  use  of  it.  T.  P. 


TO  MR.  MOORE,  OF  NEW-YORK, 


COMMONLY    CALLED 


BISHOP  MOORE. 


I  have  read  in  the  newspapers  your  account  of  the  visit  you 
made  to  the  unfortunate  General  Hamilton,  and  of  administering 
to  him  a  ceremony  of  your  church  which  you  call  the  Holy  Com' 
munion. 

I  regret  the  fate  of  General  Hamilton,  and  I  so  far  hope  with 
you  that  it  will  be  a  warning  to  thoughtless  man  not  to  sport  away 
the  life  that  God  has  given  him  ;  but  with  respect  to  other  parts  of 
your  letter  I  think  it  very  reprehensible,  and  betrays  great  ignorance 
of  what  true  religion  is.  But  you  are  a  priest,  you  get  your  living 
by  it,  and  it  is  not  your  worldly  interest  to  undeceive  yourself. 

After  giving  an  account  of  your  administering  to  the  deceased 
what  you  call  the  Holy  Communion,  you  add,  "  By  reflecting  on 
this  melancholy  event  let  the  humble  believer  be  encouraged  ever 
to  hold  fast  that  precious  faith  which  is  the  only  source  of  true  con- 
solation in  the  last  extremity  of  nature.  Let  the  infidel  be  per- 
suaded to  abandon  his  opposition  to  the  Gospel." 

To  show  you,  sir,  that  your  promise  of  consolation  from  scrip 
ture  has  no  foundation  to  stand  upon,  I  will  cite  to  you  one  of  the 
greatest  falsehoods  upon  record,  and  which  was  given,  as  the  re- 
cord says,  for  the  purpose,  and  as  a  promise,  of  consolation. 

In  the  epistle  called  "  the  First  Epistle  of  Paul  to  the  Thessalo 
nians,"  (chap.  4,)  the  writer  consoles  the  Thessalonians  as  to  the 
case  of  their  friends  who  were  already  dead.  He  does  this  by  in- 
forming them,  ^nd  he  does  it  he  says,  by  the  word  of  the  Lord,  (a 


356  MISCELLANEOUS  PIECES. 

most  notorious  falsehood,)  that  the  general  resurrection  of  the  dead 
and  the  ascension  of  the  living,  will  be  in  his  and  their  days  ;  tha*. 
their  friends  will  then  come  to  life  again  ;  that  the  dead  in  Chris;, 
will  rise  first. — "  Then  we  (says  he,  v.  17)  which  are  alive  ant 
remain  shall  be  caught  up  together  with  them  in  the  clouds,  to  mee 
the  Lord  in  the  air,  and  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord — where 
fore  comfort  one  another  with  these  words." 

Delusion  and  falsehood  cannot  be  carried  higher  than  they  are 
in  this  passage.  You,  sir,  are  but  a  novice  in  the  art.  The  words 
admit  of  no  equivocation.  The  whole  passage  is  in  the  first  per- 
son and  the  present  tense,  "  We  which  are  alive^  Had  the  wri- 
ter meant  a  future  time,  and  a  distant  generation,  it  must  have 
been  in  the  third  person  and  the  future  tense.  "  Theij  who  shall 
then  be  alive."  I  am  thus  particular  for  the  purpose  of  nailing 
you  down  to  the  text,  that  you  may  not  ramble  from  it,  nor  put 
other  constructions  upon  the  words  than  they  will  bear,  which 
priests  are  very  apt  to  do. 

Now,  sir,  it  is  impossible  for  serious  man,  to  whom  God  has 
given  the  divine  gift  of  reason,  and  who  employs  that  reason  to 
reverence  and  adore  the  God  that  gave  it,  it  is,  I  say,  impossible 
for  such  a  man  to  put  confidence  in  a  book  that  abounds  with  fable 
and  falsehood  as  the  New  Testament  does.  This  passage  is  but 
a  sample  of  what  I  could  give  you. 

You  call  on  those  whom  you  style  "  infidels,''^  (and  they  in  re- 
turn might  call  you  an  idolater,  a  worshipper  of  false  gcds,  a 
preacher  of  false  doctrine,)  "  to  abandon  their  opposition  to  the 
Gospel."  Prove,  sir,  the  Gospel  to  be  true,  and  the  opposition 
will  cease  of  itself ;  but  until  you  do  this  (which  we  know  you  can- 
not do)  you  have  no  right  to  expect  they  will  notice  your  call.  If 
by  infidels  you  mean  Deists,  (and  you  must  be  exceedingly  ignor- 
ant of  the  origin  of  the  word  Deist,  and  know  but  little  of  Deus,  to 
put  that  construction  upon  it,)  you  will  find  yourself  over-matched 
if  you  begin  to  engage  in  a  controversy  with  them.  Priests  may 
dispute  with  priests,  and  sectaries  with  sectaries,  about  the  mean- 
ing of  what  they  agree  to  call  scripture,  and  end  as  they  began  ; 
but  when  you  engage  with  a  Deist  you  must  keep  to  fact.  Now, 
sir,  you  cannot  prove  a  single  article  of  your  religion  to  be  true, 
and  we  tell  you  so  publicly.  Do  it,  if  you  can.  The  Deistical 
article,  the  belief  of  a  God,  with  which  your  creed  begins,  has  been 
borrowed  by  your  church  from  the  ancient  Deists,  and  even  this 


MISCELLANEOUS  PIECES.  357 

article  you  dishonour  by  putting  a  clremn-hegotten  phantom*  which 
vou  call  his  son,  over  his  head,  and  treating  God  as  if  he  was  super- 
anuated.  Deism  is  the  only  profession  of  religion  that  admits  of 
worshipping  and  reverencing  God  in  purity,  and  the  only  one  on 
which  the  thoughtful  mind  can  repose  with  undisturbed  tranquillity. 
God  is  almost  forgotten  in  the  Christian  religion.  Every  thing, 
even  the  creation,  is  ascribed  to  the  son  of  Mary. 

In  religion,  as  in  every  thing  else,  perfection  consists  in  simpli- 
city. The  Christian  religion  of  Gods  within  Gods,  like  wheels 
within  wheels,  is  like  a  complicated  machine  that  never  goes  right, 
and  every  projector  in  the  art  of  Christianity  is  trying  to  mend  it. 
It  is  its  defects  that  have  caused  such  a  number  and  variety  of 
tinkers  to  be  hammering  at  it,  and  still  it  goes  wrong.  In  the  vi- 
sible world  no  time-keeper  can  go  equally  true  with  the  sun  ;  and 
in  like  manner,  no  complicated  religion  can  be  equally  true  with 
the  pure  and  unmixed  religion  of  Deism. 

Had  you  not  offensively  glanced  at  a  description  of  men  whom 
you  call  by  a  false  name,  you  would  not  have  been  troubled  nor 
honored  with  this  address  ;  neither  has  the  writer  of  it  any  desire 
or  intention  to  enter  into  controversy  with  you.  He  thinks  the 
temporal  establishment  of  your  church  politically  unjust  and  offen- 
sively unfair  ;  but  with  respect  to  religion  itself,  distinct  from 
temporal  establishments,  he  is  happy  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  own* 
and  he  leaves  you  to  make  the  best  you  can  of  yours. 

A  MEMBER  OF  THE  DEISTICAL  CHURCH 

*  The  first  chapter  of  Matthew,  relates  that  Joseph,  the  betrothed  husband 
of  Mary,  dreamed  that  the  angel  told  him  that  his  intended  bride  was  with 
child  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  not  evej-y  husband,  whether  carpenter  or 
priest,  that  can  be  so  easily  satisfied,  for  lo !  it  was  a  dream.  Whether  Mary 
was  in  a  dream  when  this  was  done  we  are  not  told.  It  is,  however,  a  comical 
Btory.     There  is  no  woman  living  can  understand  it. 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 


TO  JOHN  MASON, 


One  of  the  Ministers  of  the  Scotch  Presbyterian  Church,  of  J^eiv- 
iTork,  with  remarks  on  his  account  of  the  visit  he  made  to  the 
late  General  Hamilton. 

"  Come  now,  let  us  reason  together  saith  the  Lord.^^  This  is 
one  of  the  passages  you  quoted  from  your  Bible,  in  your  conver- 
sation with  General  Hamilton,  as  given  in  your  letter,  signed  with 
vour  name,  and  published  in  the  Commercial  Advertiser,  and 
other  New-York  papers,  and  I  re-quote  the  passage  to  show  that 
your  text  and  your  Religion  contradict  each  other. 

It  is  impossible  to  reason  upon  things  not  comprehensible  by 
reason ;  and,  therefore,  if  you  keep  to  your  text,  which  priests 
seldom  do,  (for  they  are  generally  either  above  it,  or  below  it,  or 
forget  it,)  you  must  admit  a  religion  to  which  reason  can  apply, 
and  this  certainly  is  not  the  Christian  religion. 

There  is  not  an  article  in  the  Christian  religion  that  is  cog- 
nizable by  reason.  The  Deistical  article  of  your  religion,  the 
belief  of  a  God,  is  no  more  a  Christian  article,  than  it  is  a  Maho- 
metan article.  It  is  an  universal  article,  common  to  all  religions, 
and  which  is  held  in  greater  purity  by  Turks  than  by  Christians  ; 
but  the  Deistical  church  is  the  only  one  which  holds  it  in  real 
purity  ;  because  that  church  acknowledges  no  co-partnership  with 
God.  It  believes  in  him  solely ;  and  knows  nothing  of  Sons, 
married  Virgins,  nor  Ghosts.  It  holds  all  these  things  to  be  the 
fables  of  priest-craft.  • 

Why  then  do  you  talk  of  reason,  or  refer  to  it,  since  your  reli- 
gion has  nothing  to  do  with  reason,  nor  reason  with  that.  You 
tell  people  as  you  told  Hamilton,  that  they  must  have  faith ! 
Faith  in  what  1  You  ought  to  know  that  before  the  mind  can 
have  faith  in  any  thing,  it  must  either  know  it  as  a  fact,  or  see 
cause  to  believe  it  on  the  probability  of  that  kind  of  evidence  that 
is  cognizable  by  reason ;  but  your  religion  is  not  within  either 
of  these  cases  ;  for,  in  the  first  place,  you  cannot  prove  it  be 
fact ;  and  in  the  second  place,  you  cannot  support  it  by  reason, 
not  only  because  it  is  not  cognizable  by  reason,  but  because 
it  is  contrary  to  reason.  What  reason  can  there  be  in  sup- 
posing, or  believing,  that  God  put  himself  to  death,  to  satisfy 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  8S9 

himself,  and  be  revenged  on  the  Devil  on  account  of  Adam  ;  for 
tell  the  story  which  way  you  will  it  comes  to  this  at  last. 

As  you  can  make  no  appeal  to  reason  in  support  of  an  unrea- 
sonable religion,  you  then  (and  others  of  your  profession)  bring 
yourselves  off  by  telling  people,  they  must  not  believe  in  reason 
but  in  revelation.  This  is  the  artifice  of  habit  without  reflection. 
It  is  putting  tcords  in  the  place  of  things  ;  for  do  you  not  see  that 
when  you  tell  people  to  believe  in  revelation,  you  must  first  prove 
that  what  you  call  revelation,  is  revelation  ;  and  as  you  cannot  do 
this,  you  put  the  loord  which  is  easily  spoken,  in  the  place  of  the 
thing  you  cannot  prove.  You  have  no  more  evidence  that  your 
Gospel  is  revelation,  than  the  Turks  have  that  their  Koran  is  reve- 
lation, and  the  only  difference  between  them  and  you  is,  that  they 
preach  their  delusion  and  you  preach  yours.  • 

In  your  conversation  with  General  Hamilton,  you  say  to  him, 
**  The  simple  truths  of  the  Gospel  which  require  no  abstruse  in- 
vestigation, but  faith  in  the  veracity  of  God,  who  cannot  lie,  are 
best  suited  to  your  present  condition." 

If  those  matters  you  call  "  simple  truths,^'  are  what  you  call 
them,  and  require  no  abstruse  investigation,  they  would  be  so  ob- 
vious that  reason  would  easily  comprehend  them  ;  yet  the  doc- 
trine you  preach  at  other  times  is,  that  the  mijjsteries  of  the  Gospel 
are  beyond  the  reach  of  reason.  If  your  first  position  be  true,  that 
they  are  simple  truths,  priests  are  unnecessary,  for  we  do  not 
want  preachers  to  tell  us  the  sun  shines  ;  and  if  your  second  be 
true,  the  case,  as  to  effect,  is  the  same,  for  it  is  waste  of  money  to 
pay  a  man  to  explain  unexplainable  things,  and  loss  of  time  to 
listen  to  him.  That  God  cannot  lie,  is  no  advantage  to  your 
argument,  because  it  is  no  proof  that  priests  cannot,  or  that  the 
Bible  does  not.  Did  not  Paul  lie  when  he  told  the  Thessalonians 
that  the  general  resurrection  of  the  dead  would  be  in  his  life-time, 
and  that  he  should  go  up  alive  along  with  them  into  the  clouds  to 
meet  the  Lord  in  the  air.     1  Thes.  chap.  4.  i.  27. 

You  spoke  of  what  you  call,  "  the  precious  blood  t/  Christ.''* 
This  savage  style  of  language  belongs  to  the  priests  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  The  professors  of  this  religion  say  they  are  shock- 
ed at  the  accounts  of  human  sacrifices  of  which  they  read  in  the 
histories  of  some  countries.  Do  they  not  see  that  their  own 
religion  is  founded  on  a  human  sacrifice,  the  blood  of  man,  of 
which  their  priests  talk  like  so  many  butchers.     It  is  no  wonder 


360  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

the  Christian  religion  has  been  so  bloody  in  its  effects,  for  it  began 
in  blood,  and  many  thousands  of  human  sacrifices  have  since  been 
offered  on  the  altar  of  the  Christian  religion. 

It  is  necessary  to  the  character  of  a  religion,  as  being  true,  and 
immutable  as  God  himself  is,  that  the  evidence  of  it  be  equally 
the  same  through  all  periods  of  time  and  circumstance.  This  is 
not  the  case  with  the  Christian  religion,  nor  with  that  of  the  Jews 
that  preceded  it,  (for  there  was  a  time  and  that  within  the  know- 
ledge of  history,  when  these  religions  did  not  exist,)  nor  is  it  the 
case  with  any  religion  we  know  of  but  the  religion  of  Deism.  In 
this  the  evidences  are  eternal  and  universal. — "  The  heavens  de- 
clare the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament  sheiveth  his  handy  work, 
— Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech,  and  night  unto  night  showeth 
knowledge.^'*  But  all  other  religions  are  made  to  arise  from 
some  local  circumstance,  and  are  introduced  by  some  temporary 
trifle  which  its  partizans  call  a  miracle,  but  of  which  there  is  no 
proof  but  the  story  of  it. 

The  Jewish  religion,  according  to  the  history  of  it,  began  in  a 
tvilderness,  and  the  Christian  religion  in  a  stable.  The  Jewish 
books  tell  us  of  wonders  exhibited  upon  mount  Sinai.  It  happen- 
ed that  nobody  lived  there  to  contradict  the  account.  The  Chris- 
tian books  tell  us  of  a  star  that  hung  over  the  stable  at  the  birth  of 
Jesus.  There  is  no  star  there  now,  nor  any  person  living  that 
saw  it.  But  all  the  stars  in  the  heavens  bear  eternal  evidence  to 
the  truth  of  Deism.  It  did  not  begin  iiv  a  stable,  nor  in  a  wilder- 
ness. It  began  every  where.  The  theatre  of  the  universe  is  the 
place  of  its  birth. 

As  adoration  paid  to  any  being  but  GOD  himself  is  idolatary, 
the  Christian  religion  by  paying  adoration  to  a  man,  born  of  a 
woman,  called  Mary,  belongs  to  the  idolatrous  class  of  religions, 
consequently  the  consolation  drawn  from  it  is  delusion.  Between 
you  and  your  rival  in  communion  ceremonies,  Dr.  Moore  of  the 

*  This  Psalm  (19)  which  is  a  Deistical  Psalm,  is  so  much  in  the  mannei  of 
some  parts  of  the  book  of  Job,  (which  is  not  a  book  of  the  Jews,  and  does  not 
belong  to  the  bible,)  that  it  has  the  appearance  of  having  been  translated  into 
Hebrew  from  the  same  language  in  which  the  book  of  Job  was  originally  writ 
ten,  and  brought  by  the  Jews  from  Chaldea  or  Persia,  when  they  returned 
from  captivity.  The  contemplation  of  the  heavens  made  a  great  part  of  the 
religiovis  devotion  of  the  Chaldeans  and  Persians,  and  their  religious  festivals 
were  regulated  by  the  progress  of  the  sun  through  the  twelve  signs  of  the  Zo- 
diac. But  the  Jews  knew  nothing  about  the  Heavens,  or  they  would  not 
have  told  the  foolish  story  of  the  sun's  standing  still  upon  a  hill,  and  the  moOB 
in  a  Yj  Uey.     What  could  they  want  the  moon  for  in  the  day  time. 


MISCELLANEOUS    I'lECES.  361 

Episcopal  church,  you  have,  in  order  to  make  yourselves  appear 
of  some  importance,  reduced  General  Hamilton's  character  to 
that  of  a  feeble  minded  man,  who  in  going  out  of  the  world  want- 
ed a  passport  from  a  priest.  Which  of  you  was  first  or  last  ap- 
plied to  for  this  purpose  is  a  matter  of  no  consequence. 

The  man,  sir,  who  puts  his  trust  and  confidence  in  God,  that 
leads  a  just  and  moral  life,  and  endeavours  to  do  good,  does  not 
trouble  himself  about  priests  when  his  hour  of  departure  comes, 
nor  permit  priests  to  trouble  themselves  about  him.  They  are  m 
general  mischievous  beings  where  character  is  concerned  ;  a  con- 
sultation of  priests  is  worse  than  a  consultation  of  physicians. 

A  MEMBER  OF  THE  DEISTICAL  CONGREGATION. 


ON  DEISM,  AND  THE  WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS 
PAINE. 


The  following  reflections,  written  last  winter,  were  occasioned 
hy  certain  expressions  in  some  of  the  public  papers  against  Deism 
and  the  writings  of  Thomas  Paine  on  that  subject. 

"  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians,"  was  the  cry  of  the  people 
of  Ephesus  ;*  and  the  cry  of  "  our  holy  religion,'"  has  been  the 
cry  of  superstition  in  some  instances,  and  of  hypocrisy  in  others, 
from  that  day  to  this. 

The  Brahmin,  the  follower  of  Zoroaster,  the  Jew,  the  Maho- 
metan, the  church  of  Rome,  the  Greek  church,  the  protestant 
church,  split  into  several  hundred  contradictory  sectaries,  preach- 
ing, in  some  instances,  damnation  against  each  other,  all  cry  out, 
"  our  holy  religion."  The  Calvinist,  who  damns  children  of  a 
span  long  to  hell  to  burn  for  ever  for  the  glory  of  God,  (and  this 
is  called  Christianity,)  and  the  Universalist,  who  preaches  that  all 
shall  be  saved  and  none  shall  be  damned,  (and  this  also  is  called 
Christianity,)  boasts  alike  of  their  holy  religion  and  their  Christian 
faith.  Something  more,  therefore,  is  necessary  than  mere  cry 
and  wholesale  assertion,  and  that  something  is  TRUTH  ;  and  as 

♦  Acts,  chap.  xlx.  ver.  28. 
46 


362 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES 


inquiry  is  the  road  to  truth,  he  that  is  opposed  to  inquiry  is  not  a 
fpend  to  truth. 

The  God  of  Truth  is  not  the  God  of  fable  ;  when,  therefore 
any  bo:)k  is  introduced  into  the  world  as  the  word  of  God,  and 
made  a  ground-work  for  religiou,  it  ought  to  be  scrutinized  more 
than  other  books  to  see  if  it  bear  evidence  of  being  what  it  is  cal- 
led. Our  reverence  to  God  demands  that  we  do  this,  lest  we  as- 
cribe to  God  what  is  not  his,  and  our  duty  to  ourselves  demand  it 
lest  we  take  fable  for  fact,  and  rest  our  hope  of  salvation  on  a  false 
foundation.  It  is  not  our  calling  a  book  hohj  that  makes  it  so,  any 
more  than  our  calling  a  religion  holy  that  entitles  it  to  the  name. 
Inquiry,  therefore,  is  necessary  in  order  to  arrive  at  truth.  But 
inquiry  must  have  some  principle  to  proceed  on,  some  standard  to 
judge  by,  superior  to  human  authority. 

When  we  survey  the  works  of  creation,  the  revolutions  of  the 
planetary  system,  and  the  whole  economy  of  what  is  called  nature, 
which  is  no  other  than  the  laws  the  Creator  has  prescribed  to  mat- 
ter, we  see  unerring  order  and  universal  harmony  reigning  through- 
out the  whole.  No  one  part  contradicts  another.  The  sun  does 
not  run, against  the  moon,  nor  the  moon  against  the  sun,  nor  the 
planets  against  each  other.  Every  thing  keeps  its  appointed  time 
and  place.  This  harmony  in  the  works  of  God  is  so  obvious,  that 
the  farmer  of  the  field,  though  he  cannot  calculate  eclipsss,  is  as 
sensible  of  it  as  the  philosophical  astronomer.  He  sees  the  God 
of  order  in  every  part  of  the  visible  universe. 

Here,  then,  is  the  standard  to  which  every  thing  must  be  brought 
that  pretends  to  be  the  work  or  word  of  God,  and  by  this  standard 
it  must  be  judged,  independently  of  any  thing  and  every  thing  that 
man  can  say  or  do.  His  opinion  is  like  a  feather  in  the  scale  com 
pared  with  the  standard  that  God  himself  has  set  up. 

It  is,  therefore,  by  this  standard,  that  the  Bible,  and  all  other 
books  pretending  to  be  the  word  of  God,  (and  there  are  many  of 
them  m  the  world,)  must  be  judged,  and  not  by  the  opinions  of  men 
or  the  decrees  of  ecclesiastical  councils.  These  have  been  so 
contradictory,  that  they  have  often  rejected  in  one  council  wnat 
they  had  voted  to  be  the  word  of  God  in  another  ;  and  admitted 
what  had  been  before  rejected.  In  this  state  of  uncertainty  in 
which  we  are,  and  which  is  rendered  still  more  jncertam  by  the 
numerous  contradictory  sectaries  that  have  sprung  up  smce  the 
time  of  liUther  and  Calvin,  what  is  man  to  do  ?    The  answer  xa 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  363 

easy.  Begin  at  the  root — begin  with  the  Bible  itself.  Examine  it 
with  the  utmost  strictness.  It  is  our  duty  so  to  do.  Compare  the 
parts  with  each  other,  and  the  whole  with  the  narmonious,  magni- 
ficent order  that  reigns  throughout  the  visible  universe,  and  the 
result  will  be,  that  if  the  same  almighty  wisdom  that  created  the 
universe,  dictated  also  the  Bible,  the  Bible  will  be  as  harmonious 
and  as  magnificent  in  all  its  parts,  and  in  the  whole,  as  the  uni- 
verse is.  But  if,  instead  of  this,  the  parts  are  found  to  be  discor- 
dant, contradicting  in  one  place  what  is  said  in  another,  (as  in  2 
Sam.  chap.  xxiv.  v.  1,  and  1  Chron.  chap.  xxi.  ver.  1,  where  the 
same  action  is  ascribed  to  God  in  one  book  and  to  Satan  in  the 
other,)  abounding  also  in  idle  and  obscene  stories,  and  represent- 
ing the  Almighty  as  a  passionate,  whimsical  Being,  continually 
changing  his  mind,  making  and  unmaking  his  own  works  as  if  he 
did  not  know  what  he  was  about,  we  may  take  it  for  certainty  that 
the  Creator  of  the  universe  is  not  the  author  of  such  a  book,  that 
it  is  not  the  word  of  God,  and  that  to  call  it  so  is  to  dishonour  his 
name.  The  Quakers,  who  are  a  people  more  moral  and  regular  in 
their  conduct  than  the  people  of  other  sectaries,  and  generally  al- 
lowed so  to  be,  do  not  hold  the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of  God.  They 
call  it  a  history  of  the  times,  and  a  bad  history  it  is,  and  also  a  history 
of  bad  men  and  of  bad  actions,  and  abounding  with  bad  examples. 

For  several  centuries  past  the  dispute  has  been  about  doctrines. 
It  is  now  about  fact.  Is  the  Bible  the  word  of  God,  or  is  it  not  ? 
for  until  this  point  is  established,  no  doctrine  drawn  from  the  Bible 
can  afford  real  consolation  to  man,  and  he  ought  to  be  careful  he 
does  not  mistake  delusion  for  truth.  This  is  a  case  that  con- 
cerns all  men  alike. 

There  has  always  existed  in  Europe,  and  also  in  America,  since 
its  establishments,  a  numerous  description  of  men,  (I  do  not  here 
mean  the  Quakers,)  who  did  not,  and  do  not  believe  the  Bible  to 
be  the  word  of  God.  These  men  never  formed  themselves  into 
an  established  society,  but  are  to  be  found  in  all  the  sectaries  that 
exist,  and  are  more  numerous  than  any,  perhaps  equal  to  all,  and 
are  daily  increasing.  From  Dews,  the  latin  word  for  God,  they 
have  been  denominated  Deists,  that  is,  believers  in  God.  It  is  the 
most  honourable  appellation  that  can  be  given  to  man,  because  it 
is  derived  immediately  from  the  Deity.  It  is  not  an  artificial  name 
like  episcopalian,  presbyterian,  &c.  but  is  a  name  of  sacred  signi 
fication,  and  to  revile  it  is  to  revile  the  name  of  God. 


'64  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

Since  then  there  is  so  much  doubt  and  uncertainty  about  the 
Bible,  some  asserting,  and  others  denying  it  to  be  the  word  of  God, 
it  is  best  that  the  whole  matter  come  out.  It  is  necessary,  fcr  the 
information  of  the  world,  that  it  should.  A  better  time  cannot  of- 
fer than  whilst  the  government,  patronizing  no  one  sect  or  opinion 
in  preference  to  another,  protects  equally  the  rights  of  all  ;  and 
certainly  every  man  must  spurn  the  idea  of  an  ecclesiastical 
tyranny,  engrossing  the  rights  of  the  press,  and  holding  it  free  only 
for  itself. 

Whilst  the  terrors  of  the  church,  and  the  tyranny  of  the  state, 
hung  like  a  pointed  sword  over  Europe,  men  were  commanded  to 
believe  what  the  church  told  them,  or  go  to  the  stake.  All  in- 
quiries into  the  authenticity  of  the  Bible  were  shut  out  by  the  in- 
quisition. We  ought,  therefore,  to  suspect,  that  a  great  mass  of 
information  respecting  the  Bible,  and  the  introduction  of  it  into  the 
world,  has  been  suppressed  by  the  united  tyranny  of  church  and 
state,  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  people  in  ignorance,  and  which 
ought  to  be  known. 

The  Bible  has  been  received  by  the  protestants  on  the  authority 
of  the  church  of  Rome,  and  on  no  other  authority.  It  is  she  that 
has  said  it  is  the  word  of  God.  We  do  not  admit  the  authority  of 
that  church  with  respect  to  its  pretended  infallihility,  its  manufac- 
tured miracles,  its  setting  itself  up  to  forgive  sins,  its  amphibious 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  &c.  ;  and  we  ought  to  be  watchful 
with  respect  to  any  book  introduced  by  her,  or  her  ecclesiastical 
councils,  and  called  by  her  the  word  of  God  :  and  the  more  so, 
because  it  was  by  propagating  that  belief  and  supporting  it  by  fire 
and  faggot,  that  she  kept  up  her  temporal  power.  That  the  belief 
of  the  Bible  does  no  good  in  the  world,  may  be  seen  by  the  irregu- 
lar lives  of  those,  as  well  priests  as  laymen,  who  profess  to  believe 
it  to  be  the  word  of  God,  and  the  moral  lives  of  the  Quakers  who 
do  not.  It  abounds  with  too  many  ill  examples  to  be  made  a  rule 
for  moral  life,  and  were  a  man  to  copy  after  the  lives  of  some  of 
its  most  celebrated  characters,  he  would  come  to  the  gallows. 

Thomas  Paine  has  written  to  show  that  the  Bible  is  not  the 
word  of  God,  that  the  books  it  contains  were  not  written  by  the 
persons  to  whom  they  are  ascribed,  that  it  is  an  anonymous  book, 
and  that  we  have  no  authority  for  calling  it  the  word  of  God,  or  for 
saying  it  was  written  by  inspired  penmen,  since  we  do  not  know 
who  the  writers  were.     This  is  the  opinion  not  only  of  Thomas 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  36S 

Paine,  but  of  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  the  most  respect- 
able characters  in  the  United  States  and  in  Europe.  These  men 
have  the  same  right  to  their  opinions  as  others  have  to  contrary 
opinions,  and  the  same  right  to  publish  them.  Ecclesiastical 
tyranny  is  not  admissible  in  the  United  States. 

With  respect  to  morality,  the  writings  of  Thomas  Paine  are  re- 
markable for  purity  and  benevolence  ;  and  though  he  often  enli- 
vens them  with  touches  of  wit  and  humour,  he  never  loses  sight  of 
the  real  solemnity  of  his  subject.  No  man's  morals,  either  with 
respect  to  his  Maker,  himself,  or  his  neighbour,  can  suffer  by  the 
■writings  of  Thomas  Paine. 

It  is  now  too  late  to  abuse  Deism,  especially  in  a  country  where 
the  press  is  free,  or  where  frte  presses  can  be  established.  It  is  a 
religion  that  has  God  for  its  patron  and  derives  its  name  from  him. 
The  thoughtful  mind  of  man,  wearied  with  the  endless  contentions 
of  sectaries  against  sectaries,  doctrines  against  doctrines,  and 
priests  against  priests,  finds  its  repose  at  last  in  the  contemplative 
belief  and  worship  of  one  God  and  the  practice  of  morality,  for  as 
Pope  wisely  says, 

"  He  can't  be  wrong,  whose  life  is  in  the  ris^ht." 


OF  THE  BOOKS  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Address  to  the  believers  in  the  book  called  the  Scriptures. 


The  New  Testament  contains  twenty-seven  books,  of  which 
four  are  called  Gospels  ;  one  called  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  ; 
fourteen  called  Epistles  of  Paul ;  one  of  James  ;  two  of  Peter  ; 
three  of  John  ;  one  of  Jude  ;  and  one  called  the  Revelation. 

None  of  those  books  have  the  appearance  of  being  written  by 
the  persons  whose  names  they  bear,  neither  do  we  know  who  the 
authors  were.  They  come  to  us  on  no  other  authority  than  the 
church  of  Rome,  which  the  Protestant  Priests,  especially  those  of 
New  England,  call  the  Whore  of  Babylon.  This  church  appoint- 
ed sundry  councils  to  be  held,  to  compose  creeds  for  the  people, 
and  to  regulate  church  affairs.  Two  of  the  principal  of  these 
councils  were  that  of  Nice,  and  of  Laodocia,  (names  of  the  places 
where  the  councils  were  held,)  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  years 


366  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

after  the  time  that  Jesus  is  said  to  have  lived.  Before  this  time 
there  was  no  such  book  as  the  New  Testament.  But  the  church 
could  not  well  go  on  without  having  something  to  show,  as  the 
Persians  showed  the  Zendavista,  revealed,  they  say,  by  God  to 
Zoroaster  ;  the  Bramins  of  India,  the  Shaster,  revealed,  they  say, 
by  God  to  Bruma,  and  given  to  him  out  of  a  dusky  cloud  ;  the 
Jews,  the  books  they  call  the  Law  of  Moses,  given  they  say  also 
out  of  a  cloud  on  Mount  Sinai ;  the  church  set  about  forming  a 
code  for  itself  out  of  such  materials  as  it  could  find  or  pick  up. 
But  where  they  got  those  materials,  in  what  language  they  were 
written,  or  whose  hand  writing  they  were,  or  whether  they  were 
originals  or  copies,  or  on  what  authority  they  stood  we  know  noth- 
ing of,  nor  does  the  New  Testament  tell  us.  The  church  was 
resolved  to  have  a  New  Testament,  and  as  after  the  lapse  of  more 
than  three  hundred  years,  no  hand-writing  could  be  proved  or  dis- 
proved, the  church,  who  like  former  impostors,  had  then  gotten 
possession  of  the  state,  had  every  thing  its  own  way.  It  invented 
creeds,  such  as  that  called  the  Apostle's  Creed,  the  Nicean  Creed 
the  Athanasian  Creed,  and  out  of  the  loads  of  rubbish  that  were 
presented,  it  voted  four  to  be  Gospels,  and  others  to  be  Epistles, 
as  we  now  find  them  arranged. 

Of  those  called  Gospels,  above  forty  were  presented,  each  pre- 
tending to  be  genuine.  Four  only  were  voted  in,  and  entitled, 
the  Gospel  according  to  St.  Matthew — the  Gospel  according  to 
St.  Mark — the  Gospel  according  to  St.  Luke — the  Gospel  ac- 
cording to  St.  John. 

This  word  according,  shows  that  those  books  have  not  been 
written  by  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John,  but  according  to  some 
accounts  or  traditions,  picked  up  concerning  them.  The  word 
according  means  agreeing  with,  and  necessarily  includes  the  idea 
of  two  things,  or  two  persons.  We  cannot  say,  The  Gospel  icrit- 
ten  bij  JMatihevj  according  to  Matthew;  but  we  might  say,  the 
the  Gospel  of  some  other  person  according  to  what  was  reported 
to  have  been  the  opinion  of  Matthew.  Now  we  do  not  know 
who  those  other  persons  were,  nor  whether  what  they  wrote  ac- 
corded with  any  thing  that  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John  m.ight 
have  said.  There  is  too  little  evidence,  and  too  much  contrivance, 
about  those  books  to  merit  credit. 

The  next  book  after  those  called  Gospels,  is  that  called  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles.     This  book  is  anonymous  ;  neither  do  the  coun- 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  367 

oils  thdt  compiled  or  contrived  the  New  Testament  tell  us  how 
they  came  by  it.  The  church,  to  supply  this  defect,  say  it  was 
WTitten  by  Luke,  which  shows  that  the  church  and  its  priests  have 
not  compared  that  called  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  Luke,  and 
the  Acts  together,  for  the  two  contradict  each  other.  The  book 
of  Luke,  chap.  24,  makes  Jesus  ascend  into  heaven  the  very  samo 
day  that  it  makes  him  rise  from  the  grave.  The  book  of  Acts, 
chap.  i.  V.  3,  says,  that  he  remained  on  the  earth  forty  days  after 
his  crucifixion.     There  is  no  believing  what  either  of  them  says. 

The  next  to  the  book  of  Acts  is  that  entitled.  "  The  Epistle  of 
Paul  the  Apostle*  to  the  Romans."  This  is  not  an  Epistle,  or  let- 
ter written  by  Paul  or  signed  by  him.  It  is  an  Epistle,  or  letter, 
written  by  a  person  who  signs  himself  Tertius,  and  sent,  as  it  is 
said  at  the  end,  by  a  servant  woman  called  Phebe.  The  last  chap- 
ter, V.  22,  says.  "  I  Tertius,  who  wrote  this  Epistle,  salute  you." 
T\'ho  Tertius  or  Phebe  were,  we  know  nothing  of.  The  Epistle 
is  not  dated.  The  whole  of  it  is  written  in  the  first  person,  and 
that  person  is  Tertius,  not  Paul.  But  it  suited  the  church  to 
ascribe  it  to  Paul.  There  is  nothing  in  it  that  is  interesting  ex 
cept  it  be  to  contending  and  wrangling  sectaries.  The  stupid 
metaphor  of  the  potter  and  the  clay  is  in  the  9th  chap. 

The  next  book  is  entittled  "  The  first  Epistle  of  Paul  the  Apos- 
tle, to  the  Corinthians."  This,  like  the  former,  is  not  an  Epistle 
wntten  by  Paul,  nor  signed  by  him.  The  conclusion  of  the  Epis- 
tle says,  "  The  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians  was  written  from 
Philippi,  by  Stephenas  and  Fortunatus,  and  Achaicus  and  Timo- 
theus."  The  second  epistle  entitled,  "  The  second  epistle  of 
Paul  the  Apostle,  to  the  Corinthians,"  is  in  the  same  case  with  the 
first.  The  conclusion  of  it  says,  "  It  was  written  from  Philippi, 
a  city  of  Macedonia,  by  Titus  and  Lucas. 

A  question  may  arise  upon  these  cases,  which  is,  are  these  per- 
sons the  writers  of  the  epistles  originally,  or  are  they  the  writers 
and  attestors  of  copies  sent  to  the  councils  who  compiled  the  code 
or  canon  of  the  New  Testament  ?  If  the  epistles  had  been  dated 
this  question  could  be  decided  ;  but  in  either  of  the  cases  the 
evidences  of  Paul's  hand  writing  and  of  their  being  written  by  him 

*  Acc^rdins  to  the  criterion  of  the  churcli,  Paul  was  not  an  apostle  •  that 
appellation  l)eing  given  only  to  those  called  the  twelve.  Two  sailors  belong- 
in'4  to  a  man  of  war,  got  into  a  dispute  upon  this  point,  ^vhethcr  Paul  was  an 
apostle  or  not,  and  they  agreed  to  refer  it  to  the  boatswain,  who  decided  very 
r-anonically  that  Paul  v/as  an  acting  apostle  but  not  rated. 


368  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

is  wanting,  and,  therefore,  there  is  no  authority  for  calling  them 
Epistles  of  Paul.  We  know  not  whose  Episles  they  were,  nor 
whethei  they  are  genuine  or  forged. 

The  next  is  entitled,  "  The  Epistle  of  Paul  the  Apostle  to  the 
Galatians."  It  contains  six  short  chapters.  But  short  as  the  epis- 
tle is,  it  does  not  carry  the  appearance  of  being  the  work  or  com- 
position of  one  person.  The  fifth  chapter,  ver.  2,  says,  "  If  ye 
be  circumcised  Christ  shall  avail  you  nothing."  It  does  not  say 
circumcision  shall  profit  you  nothing,  but  Christ  shall  profit  you 
nothing.  Yet  in  the  sixth  chap.  v.  15,  it  says,  "  For  in  Christ 
Jesus  neither  circumcision  availeth  any  thing  nor  uncircumcision, 
but  a  new  creature."  These  are  not  reconcileable  passages,  nor 
can  contrivance  make  them  so.  The  conclusion  of  the  epistle 
says,  it  was  written  from  Rome,  but  it  is  not  dated,  nor  is  there  any 
signature  to  it,  neither  do  the  compilers  of  the  New  Testament 
say  how  they  came  by  it.  We  are  in  the  dark  upon  all  these 
matters. 

The  next  is  entitled,  "  the  Epistle  of  Paul  the  Apostle  to  the 
Ephesians."  Paul  is  not  the  writer.  The  conclusion  of  it  says, 
"  Written  from  Rome  unto  the  Ephesians  by  Tychicus." 

The  next  is  entitled,  "the  Epistle  of  Paul  the  Apostle  to  the 
Philippians."  Paul  is  not  the  writer.  The  conclusion  of  it  says, 
*'  It  was  written  to  the  Philippians  from  Rome  by  Epaphroditus." 
It  is  not  dated.  Query,  were  those  men  who  wrote  and  signed 
those  Epistles  journeymen  Apostles,  who  undertook  to  write  in 
Paul's  name,  as  Paul  is  said  to  have  preached  in  Christ's  name  ! 

The  next  is  entitled,  "  the  Epistle  of  Paul  the  Apostle  to  the 
Colossians."  Paul  is  not  the  writer.  Doctor  Luke  is  spoken  of 
m  this  Epistle  as  sending  his  compliments.  "Luke,  the  beloved 
physician  and  Demas  greet  you."  Chap.  iv.  v.  14.  It  does  not 
say  a  word  about  his  writing  any  Gospel.  The  conclusion  of  the 
Epistle  says,  "  Written  from  Rome  to  the  Collossians,  by  Tychi 
cus  and  Onesimus." 

The  next  is  entitled,  "  The  first  and  the  second  Epistles  of  Paul 
the  Apostle,  to  the  Thessalonians."  Either  the  writer  of  these 
Epistles  was  a  visionary  enthusiast,  or  a  direct  impostor,  for  he 
tells  the  Thessalonians,  and,  he  says,  he  tells  them  by  the  word  of 
the  Lord,  that  the  world  will  be  at  an  end  in  his  and  their  time  ; 
and  after  telling  them  that  those  who  are  already  dead  shall  rise, 
he  adds,  chapter  4,  verse  17,  *'  Then  we  which  are  alive  and 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  369 

remain  shall  be  caught  up  with  them  into  the  clouds  to  meet  the  Lord 
in  the  air,  and  so  shall  we  be  ever  with  the  Lord."  Such  delected 
lies  as  these,  ought  to  fill  priests  with  confusion,  when  they  preach 
such  books  to  be  the  word  of  God.  These  two  Epistles  are  said 
in  the  conclusion  of  them,  to  be  written  from  Athens.  They  are 
without  date  or  signatures. 

The  next  four  Epistles  are  private  letters.  Two  of  them  are  to 
Timothy,  one  to  Titus,  and  one  to  Philemon.  Who  they  were, 
nobody  knows. 

The  first  to  Timothy,  is  said  to  be  wTitten  from  Laodicea.  It  is 
without  date  or  signature.  The  second  to  Timothy,  is  said  to  be 
written  from  Rome,  and  is  without  date  or  signature.  The  Epistle 
to  Titus  is  said  to  be  written  from  Nicopolis  in  Macedonia.  It  is 
without  date  or  signature.  The  Epistle  to  Philemon  is  said  to  be 
written  from  Rome  by  Onesimus.     It  is  without  date. 

The  last  Epistle  ascribed  to  Paul  is  entitled,  "  The  Epistle  of 
Paul  the  Apostle  to  the  Hebrews,"  and  is  said  in  the  conclusion 
to  be  written  from  Italy,  by  Timothy.  This  Timothy  (according 
to  the  conclusion  of  the  Epistle  called  the  second  Epistle  of  Paul 
to  Timothy)  was  bishop  of  the  church  of  the  Ephesians,  and  con- 
sequently this  is  not  an  Epistle  of  Paul. 

On  what  slender  cob-web  evidence,  do  the  priests  and  profes- 
sors of  the  Christian  religion  hang  their  faith  !  The  same  degree 
of  hearsay  evidence,  and  that  at  third  and  fourth  hand,  would  not, 
in  a  court  of  justice,  give  a  man  title  to  a  cottage,  and  yet  the 
priests  of  this  profession  presumptuously  promise  their  deluded 
followers  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.  A  little  reflection  would  teach 
men  that  those  books  are  not  to  be  trusted  to  ;  that  so  far  from 
there  being  any  proof  they  are  the  word  of  God,  it  is  unknown  who 
the  writers  of  them  were,  or  at  what  time  they  were  written,  within 
three  hundred  years  after  the  reputed  authors  are  said  to  have  lived. 
It  is  not  the  interest  of  priests,  who  get  their  living  by  them, 
to  examine  into  the  insufficiency  of  the  evidence  upon  which  those 
books  were  received  by  the  popish  councils  who  compiled  the  New 
Testament. 

The  cry  of  the  priests  that  the  church  is  in  danger,  is  the  cry  of 
men  who  do  not  understand  the  interest  of  their  own  craft,  for 
instead  of  exciting  alarms  and  apprehensions  for  its  safety,  as  they 
expect,  it  excites  suspicion  that  the  foundation  is  not  sound,  and 
tha*  it  is  necessaiy  to  take  down  and  build  it  on  a  surer  founda- 
47 


370  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

tion.  Nobody  fears  for  the  safety  of  a  mountain,  but  a  hillock  of 
sane  may  be  washed  away  !  Blow  then,  0  ye  priests,  "  the  Trum- 
pet in  Zion,"  for  the  Hillock  is  in  danger. 

DETECTOR— P. 


COMMUNICATION. 

The  cnurch  tells  us  that  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment are  divine  revelation,  and  without  this  revelation  we  could 
not  have  true  ideas  of  God. 

The  Deist,  on  the  contrary,  say,  that  those  books  are  not  divine 
revelation,  and  that  were  it  not  for  the  light  of  reason,  and  the  reli- 
gion of  Deism,  those  books,  instead  of  teaching  us  true  ideas  of  God, 
would  teach  us  not  only  false  but  blasphemous  ideas  of  him. 

Deism  teaches  us  that  God  is  a  God  of  truth  and  justice 
Does  the  Bible  teach  the  same  doctrine  ?  It  does  not. 

The  Bible  says,  (Jeremiah,  chap.  20,  verses  6,  7,)  that  God  is  a 
deceiver.  "  0  Lord  (says  Jeremiah)  thou  hast  deceived  me,  and 
I  was  deceived.     Thou  art  stronger  than  I,  and  hast  prevailed." 

Jeremiah  not  only  upbraids  God  with  deceiving  him,  but  in 
chap.  4,  verse  9,  he  upbraids  God  with  deceiving  the  people  of 
Jerusalem,  "  Ah  !  Lord  God,  (says  he,)  surely  thou  hast  greatly 
deceived  this  people  and  Jerusalem,  saying,  ye  shall  have  peace, 
whereas  the  sword  reacheth  unto  the  soul." 

In  chap.  15,  verse  8,  the  Bible  becomes  more  impudent,  and 
calls  God  in  plain  language,  a  liar.  "  Wilt  thou,  (says  Jeremiah) 
to  God,)  be  altogether  unto  me  as  a  liar  and  as  waters  that  fail." 

Ezekiel  chap.  14,  verse  9,  makes  God  to  say — "  If  the  prophet 
be  deceived  when  he  hath  spoken  a  thing,  /  the  Lord  hath  deceived 
that  prophet.^^     All  this  is  downright  blasphemy. 

The  prophet  Micaiah,  as  he  is  called,  2  Chron.  chap.  18,  verse 
18,  tells  another  blasphemous  story  of  God. — "  I  saw,  says  he,  the 
Lord  sitting  on  his  throne,  and  all  the  hosts  of  heaven  standing  on 
his  right  hand  and  on  his  left.  And  the  Lord  said,  who  shall  en- 
tice Ahab,  king  of  Israel,  to  go  up  and  fall  at  Ramoth  Gilead  1  And 
one  spoke  after  this  manner,  and  another  after  that  manner.  Then 
there  came  out  a  spirit  (Micaiah  does  not  tell  us  where  he  came 
from)  and  stood  before  the  Lord,  (what  an  impudent  fellow  this 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  37J 

spirit  was,)  and  said,  I  will  entice  him.  And  the  Lord  said  unto 
him,  wherewith  ?  and  he  said,  I  will  go  out  and  be  a  lying  spirit 
in  the  mouth  of  all  his  prophets.  And  the  Lord  said  thou  shalt 
entice  him,  and  thou  shalt  also  prevail ;  go  out  and  do  even  so. 

We  often  hear  of  a  gang  of  thieves  plotting  to  rob  and  murder  a 
man,  and  laying  a  plan  to  entice  him  out  that  they  may  execute 
their  design,  and  we  always  feel  shocked  at  the  wickedness  of  such 
wretches  ;  but  what  must  we  think  of  a  book  that  describes  the 
Almighty  acting  in  the  same  manner,  and  laying  plans  in  heaven 
to  entrap  and  ruin  mankind.  Our  ideas  of  his  justice  and  good- 
ness forbid  us  to  believe  such  stories,  and,  therefore,  we  say  that  a 
lying  spirit  has  been  in  the  mouth  of  the  writers  of  the  books  of  the 
Bible.  T.  P. 


TO  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  PROSPECT. 

In  addition  to  the  judicious  remarks  m  your  12th  number,  on 
the  absurd  story  of  Noah's  flood,  in  the  7th  chapter  of  Genesis,  I 
send  you  the  following : 

The  2d  verse  makes  God  to  say  unto  Noah,  "  Of  every  clean 
beast  thou  shalt  take  to  thee  by  sevens,  the  male  and  his  female, 
and  of  every  beast  that  are  not  clean,  by  two,  the  male  and  his 
female." 

Now,  there  was  no  such  thing  as  beasts  clean  and  unclean  in 
the  time  of  Noah.  Neither  were  there  any  such  people  as  Jews 
or  Israelites  at  that  time,  to  whom  that  distinction  was  a  law.  The 
law,  called  the  law  of  Moses,  by  which  a  distinction  is  made, 
beasts  clean  and  unclean,  was  not  until  several  hundred 
years  after  the  time  that  Noah  is  said  to  have  lived.  The  story, 
therefore,  detects  itself,  because  the  inventor  forgot  himself,  by 
making  God  make  use  of  an  expression  that  could  not  be  used  at 
the  time.  The  blunder  is  of  the  same  kind,  as  if  a  man  in  telling 
a  story  about  America  a  hundred  years  ago,  should  quote  an  ex- 
pression from  Mr.  Jefferson's  inaugural  speech  as  if  spoken  by 
him  at  that  time. 

My  opinion  of  this  story  is  the  same  as  what  a  man  once  said 
to  another,  who  asked  him  in  a  drawling  tone  of  voice,  "  Do  you 
believe  the  account  about  No-ah?"  The  other  replied  in  the  same 
»one  of  voice,  ah-no.  T.  P. 


372  MISCELLANEOUS  PIECES. 


RELIGIOUS  INTELLIGENCE.* 


The  following  publication,  which  has  appeared  in  several  news- 
papers in  different  parts  of  the  United  States,  shows  in  the  most 
striking  manner  the  character  and  effects  of  religious  fana- 
ticism, and  to  what  extravagant  lengths  it  will  carry  its  unruly 
and  destructive  operations.  We  give  it  a  place  in  the  Prospect, 
because  we  think  the  perusal  of  it  will  be  gratifying  to  our  sub- 
scribers ;  and,  because,  by  exposing  the  true  character  of  such 
frantic  zeal,  we  hope  to  produce  some  influence  upon  the  rea- 
son of  man,  and  induce  him  to  rise  superior  to  such  dreadful 
illusions.  The  judicious  remarks  at  the  end  of  this  account 
were  communicated  to  us  by  a  very  intelligent  and  faithful  friend 
to  the  cause  of  Deism. 

Extract  from  a  Letter  of  the  Rev.  George  Scott,  of  Mill  Creek,  Washington 
County,  Pennsylvania,  to  Col.  William  M'Farran,  of  Mount  Bethel,  Jforth- 
amptcn  County,  P.  dated  J^ovemher  3,  1802. 

My  Dear  Friend, 

We  have  wonderful  times  here.  God  has  been  pleased  to  visit 
this  barren  corner  with  abundance  of  his  grace.  The  work  began 
in  a  neighbouring  congregation,  at  a  sacramental  occasion,  about 
the  last  of  September.  It  did  not  make  its  appearance  in  my  con- 
gregation till  the  first  Tuesday  of  October.  After  society  in  the 
night,  there  appeared  an  evident  stir  among  the  young  people,  but 
nothing  of  the  appearance  of  what  appeared  afterwards.  On  Sa- 
turday evening  following  we  had  society,  but  it  was  dull  throughout. 
On  Sabbath-day  one  cried  out,  but  nothing  else  extraordinary  ap- 
peared.— That  evening  I  went  part  of  the  way  to  the  Raccoon 
congregation,  where  the  sacrament  of  the  supper  was  administered ; 

*  It  becomes  necessary  to  insert  Mr.  Scott's  letter,  for  the  due  vinderstanding 
of  the  comments  made  upon  it,  by  Mr.  Paine.  It  has  also  in  itself  much  in- 
terest, as  exhibiting  a  true  picture  of  the  awful  condition  in  which  priestcraft 
has  involved  human  nature,  by  inculcating  "  the  doctrines  of  our  fallen  state 
by  nature,  and  the  way  of  recovering  through  Christ."  A  more  childish  and 
besotted  dogma,  I  will  venture  to  say,  was  never  taught  in  the  most  barbarous 
nation  that  ever  existed  in  the  world. — Ed. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PIECES.  Sff^ 

J)ut  on  Monday  morning  a  very  strong  impression  of  duty  con 
strained  me  to  return  to  my  congregation  in  the  Flats,  where  the 
work  was  begun.     We  met  in  the  afternoon  at  the  meeting-house 
where  we  had  a  warm  society.     In  the  evening  we  removed  to  a 
neighbouring  house,  where  we  continued  in  society  till  midnight ; 
numbers  were  falling  all  the  time  of  society. — After  the  people 
were  dismissed,  a  considerable  number  staid  and  sung  hymns,  till 
perhaps  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  the  work  began  to  the 
astonishment  of  all.     Only  five  or  six  were  left  able  to  take  care 
of  the  rest,  to  the  number  perhaps  of  near  forty. — They  fell  in  all 
directions,  on  benches,  on  beds,  and  on  the  floor.     Next  morning 
the  people  began  to  flock  in  from  all  quarters.     One  girl  came 
early  in  the  morning,  but  did  not  get  within  one  hundred  yards  of 
the  house  before  she  fell  powerless,  and  was  carried  in.    We  could 
not  leave  the  house,  and,  therefore,  continued  society  all  that  day 
and  all  that  night,  and  on  Wednesday  morning  I  was  obliged  to 
leave  a  number  of  them  on  the  spot.     On  Thursday  evening  we 
met  again,  when  the  work  was  amazing  ;  about  twenty  persons  lay 
to  all  appearance  dead  for  near  two  and  a  half  hours,  and  a  great 
number  cried  out  with  sore  distress. — Friday  I  preached  at  Mill 
Creek.    Here  nothing  appeared  more  than  an  unusual  solemnity. 
That  evening  we  had  society,  where  great  numbers  were  brought 
under  conviction,  but  none  fell.     On  sabbath-day  I  preached  at 
Mill  Creek.     This  day  and  evening  was  a  very  solemn  time  but 
none  fell.     On  Blonday  I  went  to  attend  presbytery,  but  return- 
ed on  Thursday  evening  to  the  Flats,  where  society  was  ap- 
pointed, when  numbers  were  struck  down.     On  Saturday  evening 
we  had  society,  and  a  very  solemn  time — about  a  dozen  persons 
lay  dead  three  and  a  half  hours  by  the  watch.     On  sabbath  a  num- 
ber fell,  and  we  were  obliged  to  continue  all  night  in  society,  as  we 
had  done  every  evening  we  had  met  before.     On  Monday  a  Mr. 
Hughes  preached  at  Mill  Creek,  but  nothing  extraordinary  appear 
ed,  only  a  great  deal  of  falling.    We  concluded  to  divide  that  even- 
ing into  two  societies,  in  order  to  accommodate  the  people.    Mr. 
H.  attended  the  one  and  I  the  other.     Nothing  strange  appeared 
where  Mr.   H.   attended  ;  but  where  I  attended  God  was  present 
in  the  most  wonderful  maimer.     I  believe  there  was  not  one  pre- 
sent but  was  more  or  less  affected.     A  considerable  number  fell 
powerless,  and  two  or  three,  after  laying  some  time,  recovered 
with  joy,  and  spoke  near  half  an  hour.     One,  especially,  declared 


374  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

in  a  surprising  manner  the  wonderful  view  she  had  of  the  person 
character,  and  offices  of  Christ,  with  such  accuracy  of  language, 
that  I  was  astonished  to  hear  it.  Surely  this  must  be  the  work  of 
God  !  On  Thursday  evening  we  had  a  lively  society,  but  not  much 
falling  down.  On  Saturday  we  all  went  to  the  Cross  Roads,  and 
attended  a  sacrament.  Here  were,  perhaps,  about  4000  people 
collected.  The  weather  was  uncomfortable  ;  on  the  Sabbath-day 
it  rained,  and  on  Monday  it  snowed.  We  had  thirteen  ministers 
present.  The  exercises  began  on  Saturday,  and  continued  on 
night  and  day  with  little  or  no  intermission.  Great  numbers  fell ; 
to  speak  within  bounds,  there  were  upwards  of  150  down  at  one 
time,  and  some  of  them  continued  three  or  four  hours  with  but  lit- 
tle appearance  of  life.  Numbers  came  to,  rejoicing,  while  others 
were  deeply  distressed. — The  scene  was  wonderful ;  the  cries  of 
the  distressed,  and  the  agonising  groans,  gave  some  faint  represen- 
tation of  the  awful  cries  and  the  bitter  screams  which  will  no  doubt 
be  extorted  from  the  damned  in  hell.  But  what  is  to  me  the  most 
surprising,  of  those  who  have  been  subjects  among  my  people 
with  whom  I  have  conversed,  but  three  had  any  terrors  of  hell  dur- 
ing their  exercise.  The  principal  cry  is,  0  how  long  have  I  reject- 
ed Christ !  O  how  often  have  I  embrued  my  hands  in  his  precious 
blood  !  O  how  often  have  I  waded  through  his  precious  blood  by 
stifling  conviction  !  O  this  dreadful  hard  heart !  0  what  a  dreadful 
monster  sin  is  !  It  was  my  sin  that  nailed  Jesus  to  the  cross,  «kc. 
The  preaching  is  various  ;  some  thunder  the  terrors  of  the  law 
— others  preach  the  mild  invitation  of  the  gospel.  For  my  part, 
since  the  work  began,  I  have  confined  myself  chiefly  to  the  doc- 
trines of  our  fallen  state  by  nature,  and  the  way  of  recovery  through 
Christ  ;  opening  the  way  of  salvation  ;  showing  how  God  can  be 
just  and  yet  be  the  justifier  of  them  that  believe,  and  also  the  na 
ture  of  true  faith  and  repentance  ;  pointing  out  the  difference  be- 
tween true  and  false  religion,  and  urging  the  invitations  of  the  gos- 
pel in  the  most  engaging  manner  that  I  am  master  of,  without  any 
strokes  of  terror.  The  convictions  and  cries  appear  to  be,  per- 
haps, nearly  equal  under  all  these  different  modes  of  preaching,  but 
it  appears  rather  most  whon  we  preach  on  the  fulness  and  freeness 
of  salvation. 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  375 


REMARKS  BY  MR.  PAINE. 

In  the  fifth  chapter  of  Mark,  we  read  a  strange  story  of  the 
Devil  getting  into  the  swine  after  he  had  been  turned  out  of  a  man, 
and  as  the  freaks  of  the  Devil  in  that  story  and  the  tumble-down 
descriptions  in  this  are  very  much  alike  ;  the  two  stories  ought  to 
go  together. 

"  And  they  came  over  unto  the  other  side  of  the  sea,  into  the 
country  of  the  Gadarenes.  And  when  he  was  come  out  of  the 
ship,  immediately  there  met  him  out  of  the  tombs  a  man  with  an  un- 
clean spirit,  who  had  his  dwelling  among  the  tombs  ;  and  no  man 
could  bind  him,  no,  not  with  chains  :  because  that  he  had  been 
often  bound  with  fetters  and  chains,  and  the  chains  had  been 
plucked  asunder  by  him,  and  the  fetters  broken  in  pieces  ;  neither 
could  any  man  tame  him.  And  always  night  and  day,  he  was  in 
the  mountains,  and  in  the  tombs,  crying,  and  cutting  himself  with 
stones.  But  when  he  saw  Jesus  afar  off,  he  ran  and  worshipped 
him,  and  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  and  said,  what  have  I  to  do  with 
thee,  Jesus,  thou  son  of  the  most  high  God  1  I  adjure  thee  by  God, 
that  tViou  torment  me  not.  (For  he  said  unto  him,  come  out  of  the 
man,  thou  unclean  spirit.)  And  he  asked  him,  what  is  thy  name  1 
and  he  answered,  saying,  my  name  is  Legion  :  for  we  are  many. 
And  he  besought  him  much  that  he  would  not  send  them  away  out 
of  the  country.  Now  there  was  there,  nigh  unto  the  mountains,  a 
great  herd  of  swine  feeding.  And  all  the  devils  besought  him, 
saying,  send  us  into  the  swine,  that  we  may  enter  into  them.  And 
forthwith  Jesus  gave  them  leave.  And  the  unclean  spirits  went 
out,  and  entered  into  the  swine ;  and  the  herd  ran  down  a  vio- 
lently steep  place  into  the  sea,  (they  were  about  two  thousand,) 
and  were  choaked  in  the  sea." 

The  force  of  the  imagination  is  capable  of  producing  strange  ef- 
fects.— When  animal  magnetism  began  in  France,  which  was  while 
Doctor  Franklin  was  minister  to  that  country,  the  wonderful  ac- 
counts given  of  the  wonderful  effects  it  produced  on  the  persons 
who  were  under  the  operation,  exceeded  any  thing  related  in  the 
foregoing  letter  from  Washington  County.  They  tumbled  down, 
fell  into  trances,  roared  and  rolled  about  like  persons  supposed  to 
be  bewitched.  The  government,  in  order  to  ascertain  the  fact,  or 
detect  the  imposition,  appointed  a  committee  of  physicians  to  in- 


376  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

quire  into  the  case,  and  Doctor  Franklin  was  requested  to  accom- 
pany them,  which  he  did. 

The  committee  went  to  the  operator's  house,  and  the  persons 
on  whom  an  operation  was  to  be  performed  were  assembled. 
They  were  placed  in  the  position  in  which  they  had  been  when 
under  former  operations,  and  blind-folded.  In  a  little  time  they 
began  to  show  signs  of  agitation,  and  in  the  space  of  about  two 
hours  they  went  through  all  the  frantic  airs  they  had  shown  before  ; 
but  the  case  was,  that  no  operation  was  performing  upon  them, 
neither  was  the  operator  in  the  room,  for  he  had  been  ordered  out 
of  it  by  the  physicians  ;  but  as  the  persons  did  not  know  this,  they 
supposed  him  present  and  operating  upon  them.  It  was  the  eflect 
of  imagination  only.  Doctor  Franklin,  in  relating  this  account  to 
the  writer  of  this  article,  said,  that  he  thought  the  government  might 
as  well  have  let  it  gone  on,  for  that  as  imagination  sometimes  pro- 
duced disorders  it  might  also  cure  some.  It  is  fortunate,  however, 
that  this  falling  down  and  crying  out  scene  did  not  happen  in  New 
England  a  century  ago,  for  if  it  had  the  preachers  would  have  been 
hung  for  witchcraft,  and  in  more  ancient  times  the  poor  falling 
down  folks  would  have  been  supposed  to  be  possessed  of  a  devil, 
like  the  man  in  Mark,  among  the  tombs.  The  progress  that  rea- 
son and  Deism  make  in  the  world,  lessen  the  force  of  superstition, 
and  abate  the  spirit  of  persecution. 


MISCELLANEOUS    VIECES.  377 

THE.  STRANGE  STORY  OP 

KORAH,  DATHAN,  AND  ABIRAM, 

Numbers,  chap,  xvi.,  accounted  for. 


Old  ballads  sing  of  Chevey  Chase, 
Beneath  whose  rueful  shade, 

Full  many  a  valiant  man  was  slain. 
And  many  a  widow  made. 

But  I  will  tell  of  one  much  worse, 
That  happ'd  in  days  of  yore  ; 

All  in  the  barren  wilderness, 
Beside  the  Jordan  shore. 

Where  Moses  led  the  children  forth, 
Caird  chosen  tribes  of  God, 

And  fed  them  forty  years  with  quails, 
And  ruled  them  with  a  rod. 

A  dreadful  fray  once  rose  among 
These  self  named  tribes  of  I  am  ; 

Where  Korah  fell,  and  by  his  side 
Fell  Dathan  and  Abiram. 

An  earthquake  swallowed  thousands  up. 
And  fire  came  down  like  stones, 

Which  slew  their  sons  and  daughters  all, 
Their  wives  and  little  ones. 

*Twas  all  about  old  Aaron's  tythes 
This  murdering  quarrel  rose  ; 

For  tythes  are  worldly  things  of  old, 
That  lead  from  words  to  blows. 
48 


378  MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

A  Jew  of  Venice  has  explained, 
In  tlie  language  of  his  nation, 

The  manner  how  this  fray  began, 
Of  which  here  is  translation. 

There  was  a  widow  old  and  poor, 
Who  scarce  herself  could  keep  ; 

Her  stock  of  goods  was  very  small, 
Her  flock  one  single  sheep. 

And  when  her  time  of  shearing  came, 
She  counted  much  her  gains  ; 

For  now,  said  slie,  I  shall  be  blest 
AVith  plenty  for  my  pains. 

When  Aaron  heard  tlie  sheep  was  shearM 
And  gave  a  good  increase, 

He  straitway  sent  his  tything  man 
And  took  away  the  fleece. 

At  this  the  weeping  widow  went 

To  Korah  to  complain, 
And  Korah  he  to  Aaron  went 

In  order  to  explain. 

But  Aaron  said,  in  such  a  case 
There  can  be  no  forbearing, 

The  law  ordains  that  thou  shalt  give 
The  first  fleece  of  thy  shearing. 

When  lambing  time  was  come  about. 
This  sheep  became  a  dam ; 

And  bless'd  the  widow's  mournful  heart, 
By  bringing  forth  a  lamb. 

When  Aaron  heard  the  sheep  had  young, 

He  staid  till  it  was  grown. 
Then  he  sent  his  tything  man, 

And  took  it  for  his  own. 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

Again  the  weeping  widow  went 

To  Korah  with  her  grief, 
But  Aaron  said,  in  such  a  case 

There  could  be  no  relief. 

For  in  the  holy  law  'tis  writ. 

That  whilst  thou  keep'st  the  stock. 

Thou  shalt  present  unto  the  Lord 
The  firstling  of  tliy  flock. 

The  widow  then,  in  deep  distress. 

And  having  nought  to  eat. 
Against  her  will  she  killed  the  sheep, 

To  feed  upon  the  meat. 

When  Aaron  heard  the  sheep  was  killed, 

He  sent  and  took  a  limb ; 
Which  by  the  holy  law,  he  said, 

Pertained  unto  him ; 

For  in  the  holy  law  'tis  writ. 
That  when  thou  kill'st  a  beast, 

Thou  shalt  a  shoulder  and  a  breast 
Present  unto  the  priest. 

The  widow  then,  worn  out  with  grief, 
Sat  down  to  mourn  and  weep  ; 

And  in  a  fit  of  passion  said. 
The  devil  take  the  sheep. 

Then  Aaron  took  the  whole  away, 

And  said,  the  laws  record 
That  all  and  each  devoted  thing 

Belongs  unto  the  Lord. 

The  widow  went  among  her  kin, 

The  tribes  of  Israel  rose  ; 
And  all  the  widows,  young  and  old, 

Pull'd  Aaron  by  the  nose. 


379 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

But  Aaron  called  an  earthquake  up, 
And  fire  from  out  the  sky  ; 

And  all  the  consolation  is — 
The  Bible  tells  a  lie. 


A   COMMENTARY  OM 

THE  EASTERN  WISE  MEN, 

Travelling  to  Bethlehem,  guided  by  a  Star,  to  see  the  little  Jesus 
in  a  Manger,  as  recorded  in  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  c.  xxii. 


Three  pedlars  travelling  to  a  fair. 
To  see  the  fun  and  what  was  there, 

And  sell  their  merchandize  ; 
They  stopp'd  upon  the  road  to  chat. 
Refresh  and  ask  of  this  and  that, 

That  they  might  be  more  wise. 

"  And  pray,"  the  landlord  says  to  them, 
"  Whence  go  ye,  sirsi "  "  To  Bethlehem," 

The  citizens  replied. 
"  You're  merchants,  sirs,"  to  them  said  he. 
"  We  are,"  replied  the  pedlars  three, 

"  And  eastern  men  beside." 

"  I  pray,  what  have  you  in  your  packs, 
If  worth  the  while  I  will  go  snacks," 

To  them  quoth  Major  Domo ; 
"  We've  buckles,  buttons,  spectacles, 
And  every  thing  a  merchant  sells," 

Replied  the  travelling  trio. 

"  These  things  are  very  well,"  said  he, 

"  For  beaux  and  those  who  cannot  see, 

Much  further  than  their  knuckles ; 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES.  381 

But  Bethlehem's  fair's  for  boys  and  girls, 
Who  never  think  of  spectacles,  it. 

And  cannot  buy  your  buckles." 

"  I  have  a  pack  of  toys,"  quoth  he, 
"A  travelling  merchant  left  with  me, 

Who  could  not  pay  his  score, 
And  you  shall  have  them  on  condition 
You  sell  them  at  a  cheap  commission, 

And  make  the  money  sure." 

"  There's  one  of  us  will  stay  in  pawn. 
Until  the  other  two  return, 

If  you  suspect  our  faith,"  said  they  ; 
The  landlord  thought  this  was  a  plan 
To  leave  upon  his  hands  the  man. 

And  therefore  he  said  "  Nay." 

They  truck'd  however  for  the  pack, 
Which  one  of  them  took  on  his  back, 

And  off  the  merchants  travelled. 
And  here  the  tale  the  apostles  told 
Of  wise  men  and  their  gifts  of  gold, 

Will  fully  be  unravelled. 

The  star  in  the  east  that  shines  so  bright, 
As  might  be  seen  both  day  and  night, 

If  you  will  credit  them. 
It  was  no  other  than  a  sign 
To  a  public  house  where  pedlars  dine, 

In  East  Street,  Bethlehem. 

These  wise  men  were  the  pedlars  tliree, 
As  you  and  all  the  world  may  see, 

By  reading  to  the  end ; 
For  commentators  have  mistaken. 
In  paraphrasing  on  a  book 

They  did  not  understand. 


382 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES. 

Our  travellers  coining  to  a  house. 
Scarce  fit  to  entertain  a  mouse, 

Enquired  to  have  a  room. 
The  landlord  said  he  was  not  able, 
To  give  them  any  but  a  stable, 

So  many  folks  were  come. 

"  I  pray,  who  have  you  here,"  say  tliey, 
"  And  how  much  money  must  we  pay  ? 

For  we  have  none  to  spare." 
"  Why  there's  one  Joseph  and  a  wench, 
Who  are  to  go  before  the  bench. 

About  a  love  affair. 

"  Some  how  or  other,  in  a  manger, 
A  child  exposed  to  every  danger 

Was  found,  as  if  'twas  sleeping. 
The  girl  she  swears  that  she's  a  maid, 
So  says  the  man,  but  I'm  afraid 

On  me  will  fall  the  keeping. 

"  Now  if  you'll  set  your  wits  about 
To  find  this  knotty  matter  out, 

I'll  pay  whate'er  it  may  be." 
Then  on  the  trav'lling  pedlars  went, 
To  pay  their  birthday  compliment, 

And  talk  about  the  baby. 

They  then  unpack'd  their  pack  of  toys, 
Some  for  show  and  some  for  noise. 

But  mostly  for  the  latter  ; 
One  gave  a  rattle,  one  a  whistle, 
One  a  trumpet  made  of  gristle, 

To  introduce  the  matter. 

One  squeaked  away,  the  other  blew, 
The  third  played  on  the  rattle  too, 
To  keep  the  bantling  easy  ; 


MISCELLANEOUS    I'lECES  383 

Hence  this  story  comes  to  us, 
Of  which  some  people  make  such  fuss, 
About  the  eastern  Magi. 


THE  TALE  OF  THE  MONK  AND  JEW 

VERSIFIED. 


An  unbelieving  Jew  one  day 
Was  skating  o'er  the  icy  way, 
Which  being  brittle  let  him  in, 
Just  deep  enough  to  catch  his  chin ; 
And  in  that  woful  plight  he  hung, 
With  only  power  to  move  his  tongue. 

A  brother  skater  near  at  hand, 
A  Papist  born  in  foreign  land, 
With  hasty  strokes  directly  flew 
To  save  poor  Mordecai  the  Jew — 
But  first,  quoth  he,  I  must  enjoin 
That  you  renounce  your  faith  for  mine  ; 
There's  no  entreaties  else  will  do, 
'Tis  heresy  to  help  a  Jew 

"  Forswear  mine  fait !  No  !  Cot  forbid! 
Dat  would  be  fery  base  indeed. 
Come  never  mind  such  tings  as  deeze, 
Tink,  tink,  how  fery  hard  it  freeze. 
More  coot  you  do,  more  coot  you  be. 
Vat  signifies  your  fait  to  me. 
Come  tink  agen,  how  cold  and  vet. 
And  help  me  out  von  little  bit." 

By  holy  mass,  'tis  hard,  I  own. 
To  see  a  man  both  hang  and  drown, 
And  can't  relieve  him  from  his  pligh 
Because  he  is  an  Israelite  ; 
The  church  refuses  all  assistance, 
Beyond  a  certain  pale  and  distance; 


38t  MISCELLANEOUS   PIECES. 

Is  praying  for  your  soui  my  friend. 

"Pray  for  mine  soul,  ha!  ha!  you  make  me  laugh, 
You  petter  help  me  out  py  half: 
Mine  soul  I  farrant  vill  take  care, 
To  pray  for  her  own  self  my  tear; 
So  tink  a  little  now  for  me, 
'Tis  I  am  in  de  hole,  not  she." 

The  church  forbids  it,  friend,  and  saith 
That  all  shall  die  who  have  no  faith. 

"  Veil,  if  I  must  pelieve,  I  must, 
But  help  me  out  von  little  first." 

No,  not  an  inch  without  Amen. 
That  seals  the  whole — "Veil,  hear  me  den, 
I  here  renounce  for  coot  and  all, 
De  race  of  Jews  both  great  and  small ; 
'Tis  de  varst  trade  peneath  the  sun, 
Or  varst  religion  ;  dat's  all  vun. 
Dey  cheat,  and  get  deir  living  py't> 
And  lie,  and  swear  de  lie  is  right. 
I'll  CO  to  mass  as  soon  as  ever 
I  get  to  toder  side  de  river. 
So  help  me  out,  dow  Christian  friend, 
Dat  I  may  do  as  I  intend.'''' 

Perhaps  you  do  intend  to  cheat, 
If  once  you  get  upon  your  feet. 

"  No,  no,  I  do  intend  to  be 
A  Christian,  such  a  one  as  dee." 

For,  thought  the  Jew,  he  is  as  much 
A  Christian  man  as  I  am  such. 

The  bigot  Papist  joyful  hearted 
To  hear  the  heretic  converted. 
Replied  to  the  designing  Jew, 
This  was  a  happy  fall  for  you: 
You'd  better  die  a  Christian  now, 
For  if  you  live  you'll  break  your  vow. 
Then  said  no  more,  but  in  a  trice 
Popp'd  Mordecai  beneath  the  ice. 

ATLANTICUS. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


CASE  OF  THE  OFFICERS  OF  EXCISE;  WITH  RE- 
MARKS ON  THE  QUALIFICATIONS  OF  OFFICERS, 
AND  ON  THE  NUMEROUS  EVILS  ARISING  TO  THE 
REVENUE,  FROM  THE  INSUFFICIENCY  OF  THE 
PRESExNT  SALARY:  HUxMBLY  ADDRESSED  TO  THE 
MEMBERS  OF  BOTH  HOUSES  OF  PARLIAMENT. 


Introduction. 

As  a  design  among  the  Excise  officers  throughout  the  kingdom 
is  on  foot,  for  an  humble  application  to  parliament  next  session,  to 
have  the  state  of  their  salaries  taken  into  consideration  ;  it  has  been 
judged  not  only  expedient,  but  highly  necessary,  to  present  a  state 
of  their  case,  previous  to  the  presentation  of  their  petition. 

There  are  some  cases  so  singularly  reasonable,  that  the  more 
they  are  considered,  the  more  weight  they  obtain.  It  is  a  strong 
evidence  both  of  simplicity  and  honest  confidence,  when  petitioners 
in  any  case  ground  their  hopes  of  relief  on  having  their  case  fully 
and  perfectly  known  and  understood. 

Simple  as  this  subject  may  appear  at  first,  it  is  a  matter,  in  my 
humble  opinion,  not  unworthy  a  parliamentary  attention.  It  is  a 
subject  interwoven  with  a  variety  of  reasons  from  different  causes. 
New  matter  will  arise  on  every  thought.  If  the  poverty  of  the 
officers  of  Excise,  if  the  temptations  arising  from  their  poverty,  if 
the  qualifications  of  persons  to  he  admitted  into  employment,  if 
the  security  of  the  revenue  itself,  are  matters  of  any  weight,  then  I 
am  conscious  that  my  voluntary  services  in  this  business,  will  pro- 
duce some  good  effect  or  other,  either  to  the  better  security  of  the 
revenue,  the  relief  of  the  officers,  or  both. 

When  a  year's  salary  is  mentioned  in  the  gross,  it  acquires  a 
degree  of  consequence  from  its  sound,  which  it  would  not  if  sepa- 
rated into  daily  payments,  and  if  the  charges  attending  the  receiving, 


4  MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS. 

and  other  unavoidable  expenses  were  considered  with  it.  Fiftj 
pounds  a  year,  and  one  shilling  and  nine  pence  farthing  a  day, 
carry  as  different  degrees  of  significancy  with  them,  as  my  Lord's 
steward,  and  the  steward's  laborer ;  and  yet  an  outride  officer  in 
the  Excise,  under  the  name  of  fifty  pounds  a  year,  receives  for 
himself  no  more  than  one  shilling  and  nine  pence  farthing  a  da}'. 

After  tax,  charity,  and  sitting  expenses  are  deducted,  there  re- 
mains very  little  more  than  forty-six  pounds ;  and  the  expenses  of 
horse  keeping,  in  many  places,  cannot  be  brought  under  fourteen 
pounds  a  year,  besides  the  purchase  at  first,  and  the  hazard  of  life, 
which  reduces  it  to  thirty-two  pounds  per  annum,  or  one  shilling 
and  nine  pence  farthing  a  day. 

I  have  spoken  more  particularly  of  the  outrides,  as  they  arc  by 
far  the  most  numerous,  being  in  proportion  to  tlie  foot  walk  as 
eight  is  to  five  throughout  the  kingdom.  Yet  in  the  latter,  the 
same  misfortunes  exist ;  the  channel  of  them  only  is  altered.  The 
excessive  dearness  of  house  rent,  the  great  burthen  of  rates  and 
taxes,  and  the  excessive  price  of  all  necessaries  of  life,  in  cities  and 
large  trading  towns,  nearly  counterbalances  the  expenses  of  horse 
keeping.  Every  office  has  its  stages  of  promotions,  but  the  pecu- 
niary advantages  arising  from  a  foot  walk  are  so  inconsiderable, 
and  the  loss  of  disposing  of  effects,  or  the  charges  of  removing 
them  to  any  considerable  distance,  so  great,  that  many  outride  offi- 
cers with  a  family  remain  as  they  are,  from  an  inability  to  bear  the 
loss,  or  support  the  expense. 

The  officers  resident  in  the  cities  of  London  and  Westminster, 
are  exempt  from  the  particular  disadvantages  of  removals.  This 
seems  to  be  the  only  circumstance  which  they  enjoy  superior  to 
their  country  brethren.  In  every  other  respect  they  lie  under  the 
same  hardships,  and  suffer  the  same  distresses. 

There  are  no  perquisites  or  advantages  in  the  least  annexed  to 
the  employment.  A  few  officers  who  are  stationed  along  the  coast, 
may  sometimes  have  the  good  fortune  to  fall  in  with  a  seizure  of 
contraband  goods,  and  that  frequently  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives: 
but  the  inland  officers  can  have  no  such  opportunities.  Besides, 
the  surveying  duty  in  the  excise  it  is  so  continual,  that  without 
remissness  from  the  real  business  itself,-  there  is  no  time  to  seek 
after  them.  With  the  officers  of  the  customs  it  is  quite  otherwise, 
their  whole  time  and  care  being  appropriated  to  that  service,  and 
their  profits  are  in  proportion  to  their  vigilance. 


MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS.  5 

If  the  increase  of  money  in  the  kingdom  is  one  canse  of  the  high 
price  of  provisions,  the  case  of  tlie  Excise  officers  is  peculiarly  pitia- 
ble. No  increase  comes  to  them — they  are  shut  out  from  the  gene- 
ral blessing — they  behold  it  like  a  map  of  Peru.  The  answer  of 
Abraham  to  Dives  is  somewhat  applicable  to  them,  "  There  is  a 
great  gulf  Jixed." 

To  the  wealthy  and  humane,  it  is  a  matter  worthy  of  concern, 
that  their  affluence  should  become  the  misfortune  of  others.  Were 
the  money  in  the  kingdom  to  be  increased  double,  the  salary  would 
in  value  be  reduced  one  half.  Every  step  upwards,  is  a  step 
downwards  with  them.  Not  to  be  partakers  of  the  increase  would 
be  a  little  hard,  but  to  be  sufferers  by  it  exceedingly  so.  The  me- 
chanic and  the  laborer  may  in  a  great  measure  ward  off  the  distress, 
by  raising  the  price  of  their  manufactures  or  their  work,  but  the 
situation  of  the  officers  admit  of  no  such  relief, 

AnotlKir  consideration  in  their  behalf,  (and  which  is  peculiar  to 
the  Excise,)  is,  that  as  the  law  of  their  office  removes  them  far 
from  their  natural  friends  and  relations,  it  consequently  prevents 
those  occasional  assistances  from  them,  which  are  serviceably  felt 
in  a  family,  and  which  even  the  poorest,  among  the  poor,  enjoys. 
Most  poor  mechanics,  or  even  common  laborers,  have  some  rela 
tions  or  friends,  who.  either  out  of  benevolence  Oi'  pride,  keep  their 
children  from  nakedness,  supply  them  occasionally  with  perhaps 
half  a  hog,  a  load  of  wood,  a  chaldron  of  coals,  or  something  or 
other,  which  abates  the  severity  of  their  distress;  and  yet  those 
men  thus  relieved,  will  frequently  earn  more  than  the  daily  pay  of 
an  Excise  officer. 

Perhaps  an  officer  will  appear  more  reputable  with  the  same  pay, 
than  a  mechanic  or  laborer.  The  difference  arises  from  sentiment, 
not  circumstances.  A  something  like  reputable  pride  makes  all 
the  distinction,  and  the  thinking  part  of  mankind  well  knows,  that 
none  suffer  so  much  as  they  who  endeavor  to  conceal  their  neces- 
sities. 

The  frequent  removals  which  unavoidably  happen  in  the  Excise, 
are  attended  with  such  an  expense,  especially  where  there  is  a 
family,  as  few  officers  are  able  to  support.  About  two  years  ago, 
an  officer  with  a  family,  under  orders  for  removing,  and  rather 
embarrassed  in  circumstances,  made  his  application  to  me,  and 
from  a  conviction  of  his  distress,  I  advanced  a  small  sum,  to  enable 
him  to  proceed.     He  ingenuously  declared,  that  without  the  assist- 


b  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 

ance  of  some  friend,  he  should  be  driven  to  do  injustice  to  his 
creditors,  and  compelled  to  desert  the  duty  of  his  office.  He  has 
since  honestly  paid  me,  and  does  as  well  as  the  narrowness  of  such 
circumstances  can  admit  of. 

There  is  one  general  allowed  truth,  which  will  always  operate 
in  their  favor  ;  which  is,  that  no  set  of  men,  under  his  Majesty, 
earn  their  salary  with  any  comparison  of  labor  and  fatigue,  with 
that  of  the  officers  of  Excise.  The  station  may  rather  be  called  a 
seat  of  constant  work,  than  either  a  place  or  an  employment.  Even 
in  the  different  departments  of  the  general  revenue,  they  are  un- 
equalled in  the  burthen  of  business  ;  a  riding  officer's  place  in  the 
customs,  whose  salary  is  sixty  pounds  a  year,  is  ease  to  theirs  ;  and 
the  work  in  the  window  light  duty,  compared  with  the  Excise,  is 
lightness  itself;  yet  their  salary  is  subject  to  no  tax,  they  receive 
forty-nine  pounds  twelve  shillings  and  six  pence,  without  deduction. 

The  inconveniences  which  affect  an  Excise  officer,  are  almost 
endless  ;  even  the  land  tax  assessment  upon  their  salaries,  which, 
though  the  government  pays,  falls  often  with  hardship  upon  them. 
The  place  of  their  residence,  on  account  of  the  land  tax,  has,  in 
many  instances,  created  frequent  contentions  between  parishes,  in 
which  tlie  oflicer,  though  the  innocent  and  unconcerned  cause  f  the 
quarrel,  has  been  the  greater  sufferer. 

To  point  out  particularly  the  impossibility  of  an  Excise  officer 
supporting  himself  and  famil}',  with  any  proper  degree  of  credit 
and  reputation,  on  so  scanty  a  pittance,  is  altogether  unnecessary. 
The  times,  the  voice  of  general  want,  are  proofs  themselves. 
Where  facts  are  sufficient,  arguments  are  useless ;  and  the  hints 
which  I  have  produced,  are  such  as  affect  the  officers  of  Excise 
differently  to  any  other  set  of  men.  A  single  man  may  barely 
live ;  but  as  it  is  not  the  design  of  the  legislature,  or  the  Hon. 
Board  of  Excise,  to  impose  a  state  of  celibacy  on  them,  the  con 
dition  of  much  the  gi-eater  part  is  truly  wretched  and  pitiable. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  said,  why  do  the  Excise  officers  complain  ? 
They  are  not  pressed  into  the  service,  and  may  relinquish  it  when 
they  please  ;  if  they  can  mend  themselves  wh}'  don't  the}'  1  Alas  ! 
what  a  mockery  of  pity  would  it  be,  to  give  such  an  answer  to  an 
honest,  faithful,  old  officer  in  the  Excise,  who  had  spent  the  prime 
of  his  life  in  the  service,  and  was  become  unfit  for  any  thing  else ! 
The  time  limited  for  an  admission  into  an  Excise  employment,  is 
between  twenty-one  and  thirty  years  of  age,  the  very  flower  of 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  7 

life.  Every  other  hope  and  consideration  are  then  given  up,  and 
the  chance  of  establishing  themselves  in  any  other  business,  be- 
comes in  a  few  years  not  only  lost  to  them,  but  they  become  lost 
to  it. 

"  TTiere  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  ofmen^  which  if  embraced^  leads 
on  to  fortune — that  neglected,  all  beyond  is  misery  or  want,'''' 

When  we  consider  how  few  in  the  Excise  arrive  at  any  com- 
fortable eminence,  and  the  date  of  life  when  such  promotions  only 
can  happen,  the  great  hazard  there  is  of  ill,  rather  than  good  for- 
tune in  the  attempt,  and  that  all  the  years  antecedent  to  that  is  a 
state  of  mere  existence,  wherein  they  are  shut  out  from  the  common 
chance  of  success  in  any  other  way :  a  reply  like  that  can  be  only 
a  derision  of  their  Avants.  It  is  almost  impossible,  after  any  long 
continuance  in  the  Excise,  that  they  can  live  any  other  way.  Such 
as  are  of  trades,  would  have  their  trades  to  learn  over  again ;  and 
people  would  have  but  little  opinion  of  their  abilities  in  any  calling, 
who  had  been  ten,  fifteen,  or  twenty  years  absent  from  it.  Every 
year's  experience  gained  in  the  Excise,  is  a  year's  experience 
lost  in  trade ;  and  by  the  time  they  become  wise  oflScers,  they  be- 
come foolish  workmen. 

Were  the  reasons  for  augmenting  the  salary  grounded  only  on 
the  charitableness  of  so  doing,  they  would  have  great  weight  with 
the  compassionate.  But  there  are  auxiliaries  of  such  a  powerful 
cast,  that  in  the  opinion  of  policy,  they  obtain  the  rank  of  originals. 
The  first  is  truly  the  case  of  the  officers,  but  this  is  rather  the  case 
of  the  revenue. 

The  distresses  in  the  Excise  are  so  generally  known,  that  num- 
bers of  gentlemen,  and  other  inhabitants  in  places  where  officers 
are  resident,  have  generously  and  humanely  recommended  their 
case  to  the  members  of  the  hon.  house  of  commons:  and  numbers 
of  traders  of  opulence  and  reputation,  well  knowing  that  the  poverty 
of  an  officer  may  subject  him  to  the  fraudulent  designs  of  some 
selfish  persons  under  his  survey,  to  the  great  injury  of  the  fair 
trader,  and  trade  in  general,  have,  from  principles  of  generosity 
and  justice,  joined  in  the  same  recommendation. 


8  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 

Thoughts  on  the  corruption  of  principles,  and  on  the  numerous 

evils  arising  to  the  revenue,  from  the  too  great  poverty  of  ike 

officers  of  Excise. 

It  has  always  been  the  wisdom  of  government,  to  consider  the 
situation  and  circumstances  of  persons  in  trust.  Why  are  large 
salaries  given  in  many  instances,  but  to  proportion  it  to  the  trust, 
to  set  men  above  temptation,  and  to  make  it  even  literally  worth 
their  while  to  be  honest?  The  salaries  of  the  judges  have  been 
augmented,  and  their  places  made  independent  even  of  the  crown 
itself,  for  the  above  wise  purposes. 

Certainly  there  can  be  nothing  unreasonable  in  supposing  there 
is  such  an  instinct  as  frailty  among  the  officers  of  Excise,  in 
common  with  the  rest  of  mankind ;  and  that  the  most  effectual 
method  to  keep  men  honest  is  to  enable  them  to  live  so.  The 
tenderness  of  conscience  is  too  often  overmatched  by  tne  sharpness 
of  want;  and  principle,  like  charity,  yields  with  just  reluctance 
enough  to  excuse  itself.  There  is  a  powerful  rhetoric  m  necessity, 
which  exceeds  even  a  Dunning  or  a  Wedderburne.  No  argument 
can  satisfy  the  feelings  of  hunger,  or  abate  the  edge  of  appetite. 
Nothing  tends  to  a  greater  corruption  of  manners  and  principles, 
than  a  too  great  distress  of  circumstances ;  and  the  corruption  is 
of  that  kind,  that  it  spreads  a  plaster  for  itself:  like  a  viper,  it 
carries  a  cure,  though  a  false  one,  for  its  own  poison.  Agur, 
without  any  alternative,  has  made  dishonesty  the  immediate  conse- 
quence of  poverty,  "  Lest  I  be  poor  and  steal."  A  very  little 
degree  of  that  dangerous  kind  of  philosophy,  which  is  the  almost 
certain  effect  of  involuntary  poverty,  will  teach  men  to  believe,  that 
to  starve  is  more  criminal  than  to  steal,  by  as  much  as  every  species 
of  self  murder  exceeds  every  other  crime ;  that  true  honesty  is 
sentimental,  and  the  practice  of  it  dependent  upon  circumstances. 
If  the  gay  find  it  difficult  to  resist  the  allurements  of  pleasure,  the 
great  the  temptations  of  ambition,  or  the  miser  the  acquisition  of 
wealth,  how  much  stronger  are  the  provocations  of  want  and  po- 
verty? The  excitements  to  pleasure,  grandeur,  or  riches,  are 
mere  "  shadows  of  a  shade,"  compared  to  the  irresistible  necessities 
of  nature.  "  Not  to  be  led  into  temptation,"  is  the  prayer  of  divinity 
itself;  and  to  guard  against,  or  rather  to  prevent,  such  insnaring 
situations,  is  one  of  the  greatest  heights  of  human  prudence:  in 
private  life  it  is  partly  religious;  and  in  a  revenue  sense,  it  is 
truly  political. 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  3 

The  rich,  in  ease  and  affluence,  may  tliink  I  have  drawn  an  un- 
natural portrait;  but  could  they  descend  to  the  cold  regions  of 
want,  the  circle  of  polar  poverty,  they  would  find  their  opinions 
changing  with  the  climate.  There  are  habits  of  thinking  peculiar 
to  different  conditions,  and  to  find  them  out  is  truly  to  study  man- 
kind. 

That  the  situation  of  an  Excise  officer  is  of  this  dangerous  kind, 
must  be  allowed  by  every  one  who  will  consider  the  trust  unavoid- 
ably reposed  in  him,  and  compare  the  narrowness  of  his  circum- 
stances with  the  hardship  of  the  times.  If  the  salary  was  judged 
competent  an  hundred  years  ago,  it  cannot  be  so  now.  Should  it 
be  advanced,  that  if  the  present  set  of  officers  are  dissatisfied  whh 
the  salary,  that  enow  may  be  procured,  not  only  for  the  present 
salary,  but  for  less ;  the  answer  is  extremely  easy.  The  question 
needs  only  to  be  put ;  it  destroys  itself.  Were  two  or  three  thou- 
sand men  to  offer  to  execute  the  office  without  any  salary,  would 
the  goverimient  accept  them  ?  No.  Were  the  same  number  to 
offer  the  same  service  for  a  salary  less  than  can  possibly  support 
them,  would  the  government  accept  them  1  Certainly  not ;  for 
while  nature,  in  spite  of  law  or  religion,  makes  it  a  ruling  principle 
not  to  starve,  the  event  would  be  this,  that  as  they  could  not  live 
on  the  salary,  they  would  discretionally  live  out  of  the  duly. 
Quere,  whether  poverty  has  not  too  great  an  influence  now? 
Were  the  employment  a  place  of  direct  labor,  and  not  of  trust,  then 
frugality  in  the  salary  would  be  sound  policy :  but  when  it  is  con- 
sidered that  the  greatest  single  branch  of  the  revenue,  a  duty 
amounting  to  near  five  millions  sterling,  is  annually  charged  by  a 
set  of  men,  most  of  whom  are  wanting  even  the  common  necessa- 
ries of  life,  the  thought  must,  to  every  friend  to  honesty,  to  every 
person  concerned  in  the  management  of  the  public  money,  be 
strong  and  striking.  Poor  and  in  power,  are  powerful  temptations  ; 
I  call  it  power,  because  they  have  it  in  their  power  to  defraud. 
The  trust  unavoidably  reposed  in  an  Excise  officer  is  so  great,  that 
it  would  be  an  act  of  wisdom,  and  perhaps  of  interest,  to  secure 
him  from  the  temptations  of  downright  poverty.  To  relieve  their 
wants  would  be  charity,  but  to  secure  the  revenue  by  so  doing, 
would  be  prudence.  Scarcely  a  week  passes  at  the  office  but  some 
detections  are  made  of  fraudulent  and  collusive  proceedings.  The 
poverty  of  the  officers  is  the  fairest  bait  for  a  designing  trader  that 
can  possibly  be  ;  such  introduce  themselves  to  the  ofTicei  under  the 
u 


10  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 

common  plea  of  the  insufficiency  of  the  salary.  Every  considerate 
mind  must  allow,  that  poverty  and  opportunity  corrupt  many  an 
honest  man.  I  am  not  at  all  surprised  that  so  many  opulent  and 
reputable  traders  have  recommended  the  case  of  the  officers  to  the 
good  favor  of  their  representatives.  They  are  sensible  of  the 
pinching  circumstances  of  the  officers,  and  of  the  injury  to  trade  in 
general,  from  the  advantages  which  are  taken  of  them.  The  wel- 
fare of  the  fair  trader,  and  the  security  of  the  revenue,  are  so 
inseparably  one,  that  their  interest  or  injuries  are  alike.  It  is  the 
opinion  of  such  whose  situation  give  them  a  perfect  knowledge  in 
the  matter,  that  the  revenue  suffers  more  by  the  corruption  of  a 
few  officers  in  a  country,  than  would  make  a  handsome  addition  to 
the  salary  of  the  whole  number  m  the  same  place. 

I  very  lately  knew  an  instance  where  it  is  evident,  on  compari- 
son of  the  duty  charged  since,  that  the  revenue  suffered  by  one 
trader,  (and  he  not  a  very  considerable  one,)  upwards  of  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  pounds  per  annum  for  several  years ;  and  yet  the 
benefit  to  the  officer  was  a  mere  trifle,  in  consideration  of  the  trader's. 
Without  doubt  the  officer  would  have  thought  himself  much  happier 
to  have  received  the  same  addition  another  way.  The  bread  of 
deceit  is  a  bread  of  bitterness  ;  but  alas!  how  few  in  times  of  want 
and  hardship  are  capable  of  thinking  so  :  objects  appear  under  new 
colors,  and  in  shapes  not  naturally  their  own ;  hunger  sucks  in  the 
deception,  and  necessity  reconciles  it  to  conscience. 

The  commissioners  of  Excise  strongly  enjoin,  that  no  officer  ac- 
cept any  treat,  gratuity,  or,  in  short,  lay  himself  under  any  kind  of 
obligation  to  the  traders  under  their  survey :  the  wisdom  of  such  an 
injunction  is  evident;  but  the  practice  of  it,  surrounded  with 
children  and  poverty,  is  scarcely  possible  ;  and  such  obligations, 
wherever  they  exist,  must  operate,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  the 
injury  of  the  revenue.  Favors  will  naturally  beget  their  likenesses, 
especially  where  the  return  is  not  at  our  own  expense. 

I  have  heard  it  remarked,  by  a  gentleman  whose  knowledge  in 
excise  business  is  indisputable,  that  there  are  numbers  of  officers 
who  are  even  afraid  to  look  into  an  unentered  room,  lest  they  should 
give  offence.  Poverty  and  obligation  tie  up  the  hands  of  office, 
and  give  a  prejudicial  bias  to  the  mind. 

There  is  another  kind  of  evil,  which,  though  it  may  never  amount 
to  what  may  be  deemed  criminality  in  law,  yet  it  may  amount  to 
what  is  much  worse  in  effect,  and  that  is,  a  constant  and  perpetual 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  11 

leakage  in  tlie  revenue :  a  sort  of  gratitude  in  the  dark,  a  distant 
requital  for  such  civilities  as  only  the  lowest  poverty  would  accept, 
and  which  are  a  thousand  per  cent,  above  the  value  of  the  civility 
received.  Yet  there  is  no  immediate  collusion ;  the  trader  and 
officer  are  both  safe ;  the  design,  if  discovered,  passes  for  error. 

These,  with  numberless  other  evils,  have  all  their  origin  in  the 
poverty  of  the  officers.  Poverty,  in  defiance  of  principle,  begets  a 
degree  of  meanness  that  will  stoop  to  almost  any  thing.  A  thou- 
sand refinements  of  argument  may  be  brought  to  prove,  that  the 
practice  of  honesty  will  be  still  the  same,  in  the  most  trying  and 
necessitous  circumstances.  He  who  never  was  an  hungered  man 
may  argue  finely  on  the  subjection  of  his  appetite  ;  and  he  who  never 
was  distressed,  may  harangue  as  beautifully  on  the  power  of  princi- 
ple. But  poverty,  like  grief,  has  an  incurable  deafness,  which 
never  hears ;  the  oration  loses  all  its  edge ;  and  "  To  6e,  or  not  to 
ie,"  becomes  the  only  question. 

There  is  a  striking  difference  between  dishonesty  arising  from 
want  of  food,  and  want  of  principle.  The  first  is  worthy  of  com- 
passion, the  other  of  punishment.  Nature  never  produced  a  man 
who  would  starve  in  a  well  stored  larder,  because  the  provisions 
were  not  his  own  :  but  he  who  robs  it  from  luxury  of  appetite  de 
serves  a  gibbet. 

There  is  another  evil  which  the  poverty  of  the  salary  produces, 
and  whicii  nothing  but  an  augmentation  can  remove  ;  and  that  is, 
negligence  and  indifference.  These  may  not  appear  of  such  dark 
complexion  as  fraud  and  collusion,  but  their  injuries  to  the  revenue 
are  the  same.  It  is  impossible  that  any  office  of  business  can  be 
regarded  as  it  ought,  where  this  ruinous  disposition  exists.  It  re- 
quires no  sort  of  argument  to  prove,  tliat  the  value  set  upon  any 
place  or  employment,  will  be  in  proportion  to  the  value  of  it;  and 
that  diligence  or  negligence  will  arise  from  the  same  cause.  The 
continual  number  of  relinquishments  and  discharges  always  happen- 
ing in  the  Excise,  are  evident  proofs  of  it. 

Persons  first  coming  into  the  Excise,  form  very  different  notions 
of  it,  to  what  they  have  afterwards.  The  gay  ideas  of  promotion 
soon  expire;  continuance  of  work,  the  strictness  of  the  duty,  and 
the  poverty  of  the  salary,  soon  beget  negligence  and  indifference : 
the  course  continues  for  a  while,  the  revenue  suffers,  and  the  officer 
is  discharged :  the  vacancy  is  soon  filled  up,  new  ones  arise  io 
produce  the  same  mischief,  and  share  the  same  fate. 


12 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 


What  adds  still  more  to  the  weight  of  this  grievance  is,  that  this 
destructive  disposition  reigns  most  among  such  as  are  otherwise  the 
most  proper  and  qualified  for  the  employment ;  such  as  are  neither 
fit  for  the  Excise,  or  any  thing  else,  are  glad  to  hold  in  by  any 
means :  but  the  revenue  lies  at  as  much  hazard  from  their  want  of 
judgment,  as  from  the  others'  want  of  diligence. 

In  private  life,  no  man  would  trust  the  execution  of  any  important 
concern,  to  a  servant  who  was  careless  whether  he  did  it  or  not, 
and  the  same  rule  must  hold  good  in  a  revenue  sense.  The  com- 
missioners may  continue  discharging  every  day,  and  the  example 
will  have  no  weight  while  the  salary  is  an  object  so  inconsiderable, 
and  this  disposition  has  such  a  general  existence.  Should  it  be 
advanced,  that  if  men  will  be  careless  of  such  bread  as  is  in  their 
possession,  they  will  still  be  the  same  were  it  better;  I  answer  that, 
as  the  disposition  I  am  speaking  of  is  not  the  effect  of  natural 
idleness,  but  of  dissatisfaction  in  point  of  profit,  they  would  not 
continue  the  same.  A  good  servant  will  be  careful  of  a  good  place, 
though  very  indifferent  about  a  bad  one.  Besides,  this  spirit  of  in- 
difference, should  it  procure  a  discharge,  is  no  way  affecting  to 
their  circumstances.  The  easy  transition  of  a  qualified  officer  to  a 
compting  house,  or  at  least  a  school  master,  at  any  time,  as  it  na- 
turally supports  and  backs  his  indifference  about  the  Excise,  so  it 
takes  off  all  punishment  from  the  order  whenever  it  happens. 

I  have  known  numbers  discharged  from  the  Excise,  who  would 
have  been  a  credit  to  their  patrons  and  the  employment,  could  they 
have  found  it  worth  their  while  to  have  attended  to  it.  No  man 
enters  into  the  Excise  with  any  higher  expectations  than  a  compe- 
tent maintenance ;  but  not  to  find  even  that,  can  produce  nothing 
bnt  corruption,  collusion,  and  neglect. 

Remarks  on  the  qualification  of  Officers. 
In  employments  where  direct  labor  only  is  wanted,  and  trust 
quite  out  of  the  question,  the  service  is  merely  animal  or  mechanical. 
In  cutting  a  river,  or  forming  a  road,  as  there  is  no  possibility  of 
fraud,  the  merit  of  honesty  is  of  but  little  weight.  Health,  strength, 
and  hardiness,  are  the  laborer's  virtues.  But  where  property  de- 
pends on  the  trust,  and  lies  at  the  discretion  of  the  servant,  the 
judgement  of  the  master  takes  a  different  channel,  both  in  the  choice 
and  the  wages.  The  honest  and  dissolute  have  here  no  comparison 
of  merit.     A  known  thief  may  be  trusted  to  gather  stones;  but  a 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  13 

Steward  ought  to  be  proof  against  the  temptations  of  uncounted 
gold. 

The  Excise  is  so  far  from  being  of  the  nature  of  the  first,  that  it 
is  all,  and  more  than  can  commonly  be  put  together  in  the  last : 
It  is  a  place  of  poverty,  of  trust,  of  opportunity,  and  temptation, 
A  compound  of  discords,  where  the  more  they  harmonize,  the  more 
they  offend. 

To  be  properly  qualified  for  the  employment,  it  is  not  only  ne- 
cessary that  the  person  be  honest,  but  that  he  be  sober,  diligent, 
and  skilful ;  sober,  that  he  may  be  always  capable  of  business ; 
diligent,  that  he  may  be  always  in  his  business;  and  skilful,  that  he 
may  be  able  to  prevent  or  detect  frauds  against  the  revenue.  The 
want  of  any  of  ihese  qualifications  is  a  capital  offence  in  the  Excise. 
A  complaint  of  drunkenness,  negligence,  or  ignorance,  is  certain 
death  by  the  laws  of  the  board.  It  cannot  then  be  all  sorts  of  per- 
sons who  are  proper  for  the  office.  The  very  notion  of  procuring 
a  sufficient  number  for  even  less  than  the  present  salary,  is  so  des- 
titute of  every  degree  of  sound  reason,  that  it  needs  no  reply.  The 
employment,  from  the  insufficiency  of  the  salary,  is  already  become 
so  inconsiderable  in  the  general  opinion,  that  persons  of  any  capa- 
city or  reputation  will  keep  out  of  it ;  for  where  is  the  mechanic,  or 
even  the  laborer,  who  cannot  earn  at  least  Is.  Q^d.  per  day  1  It 
certainly  cannot  be  proper  to  take  the  dregs  of  every  calling,  and 
to  make  the  Excise  the  common  receptacle  for  the  indigent,  the 
Ignorant,  and  the  calamitous. 

A  truly  worthy  commissioner,  lately  dead,  made  a  public  offer,  a 
few  years  ago,  of  putting  any  of  his  neighbors'  sons  into  the  Excise  ; 
but  though  the  offer  amounted  almost  to  an  invitation,  one  only, 
whom  seven  years  apprenticeship  could  not  make  a  tailor,  accepted 
it;  who,  after  a  twelvemonth's  instruction,  was  ordered  off,  but  in 
a  few  days  finding  the  employment  beyond  his  abilities,  he  prudently 
deserted  it,  and  returned  home,  where  he  now  remains  in  the 
character  of  an  husbandman. 

There  are  very  few  instances  of  rejection  even  of  persons 
who  can  scarce  write  their  own  names  legibly  ;  for  as  there  is 
neither  law  to  compel,  nor  encouragement  to  excite,  no  other  can 
be  had  than  such  as  offer,  and  none  will  offer  who  can  see  any 
other  prospect  of  living.  Every  one  knows  that  the  Excise  is  a 
Dlace  of  labor,  not  of  ease ;  of  hazard,  not  of  certainty ;  and  that 
downright  poverty  finishes  the  character. 


14  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 

It  must  Strike  every  considerate  mind,  to  hear  a  man  with  a  large 
family,  faithful  enough  to  declare,  that  he  cannot  support  himself 
on  the  salary  with  that  honest  independency  he  could  wish.  There 
is  a  great  degree  of  affecting  honesty  in  an  ingenuous  confession. 
Eloquence  may  strike  the  ear,  but  the  language  of  poverty  strikes 
tlie  heart;  the  first  may  charm  like  nmsic,  but  the  second  alarms 
like  a  knell. 

Of  late  years  there  has  been  such  an  admission  of  improper  and 
unqualified  persons  in  the  Excise,  that  the  office  is  not  only  become 
contemptible,  but  the  revenue  insecure.  Collectors,  whose  long 
services  and  qualifications  have  advanced  them  to  that  station, 
are  disgraced  by  the  wretchedness  of  new  supers  continually. 
Certainly  some  regard  ouglit  to  be  had  to  decency,  as  well  as 
merit. 

These  are  some  of  the  capital  evils  which  arise  from  the  wretch- 
ed poverty  of  the  salary.  Evils  they  certainly  are ;  for  what  can 
be  more  destructive  in  a  revenue  office,  than  corruption,  collusion, 
neglect,  and  ill  qualifications. 

Should  it  be  questioned  whether  an  augmentation  of  salary  would 
remove  them,  I  answer,  there  is  scarce  a  doubt  to  be  made  of  it. 
Human  wisdom  may  possibly  be  deceived  in  its  wisest  designs;  but 
here,  every  thought  and  circumstance  establishes  the  hope.  They 
are  evils  of  such  a  ruinous  tendency,  that  they  must,  by  some 
means  or  other,  be  removed.  Rigor  and  severity  have  been  tried 
in  vain ;  for  punishment  loses  all  its  force  where  men  expect  and 
disregard  it. 

Of  late  years,  the  board  of  Excise  has  shown  an  extraordinary 
tenderness  in  such  instances  as  might  otherwise  have  affected  the 
circumstances  of  their  officers.  Their  compassion  has  greatly 
tended  to  lessen  the  distresses  of  tlie  employment ;  but  as  it  cannot 
amount  to  a  total  removal  of  them,  the  officers  of  Excise  throughout 
the  kingdom  have  (as  the  voice  of  one  man)  prepared  petitions  to 
be  laid  before  the  honorable  house  of  commons  on  the  ensuing 
parliament. 

An  augmentation  of  salary,  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  live 
honestly  and  competently,  would  produce  more  good  effect  than  all 
the  laws  of  the  land  can  enforce.  The  generality  of  such  frauds 
as  the  officers  have  been  detected  in,  have  appeared  of  a  nature  as 
remote  from  inherent  dishonesty  as  a  temporary  illness  is  from  an 
incurable  disease.     Surrounded  with  want,  children,  and  despair, 


MISCELLANEOUS   LETTERS   AND   ESSAYS.  15 

what  can  the  husband  or  the  father  do  ?     No  laws  compel  like  na- 
ture— no  connections  bind  like  blood. 

With  an  addition  of  salary,  the  Excise  would  wear  a  new  aspect, 
and  recover  its  former  constitution.  Languor  and  neglect  would 
give  place  to  care  and  cheerfulness.  Men  of  reputation  and  abili- 
ties wouW  seek  after  it,  and  finding  a  comfortable  maintenance 
would  stick  to  it.  The  unworthy  and  incapable  would  be  rejected, 
the  power  of  superiors  be  reestablished,  and  laws  and  instructions 
eceive  new  force.  The  officers  would  be  secured  from  the  temp 
tations  of  poverty,  and  the  revenue  from  the  evils  of  it ;  the  cure 
would  be  as  extensive  as  the  complaint,  and  new  health  outroot  the 
present  corruptions. 

THOMAS    PAINE. 


16  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 


PETITION  TO  THE  BOARD  OF  EXCISE. 


Honorable   Sirs: 

In  humble  obedience  to  your  honors'  letter  of  discharge,  bearing 
date  August  29,  1765,  1  delivered  up  my  commission,  and  since 
that  time  have  given  you  no  trouble. 

I  confess  the  justice  of  your  honors'  displeasure,  and  humbly  beg 
leave  to  add  my  thanks  for  the  candor  and  lenity  which  you  at  that 
unfortunate  time  indulged  me  with. 

And  though  the  nature  of  the  report  and  my  own  confession  cut 
off  all  expectations  of  enjoying  your  honors'  favor  then,  yet  I 
humbly  hope  it  has  not  finally  excluded  me  therefrom  ;  upon  which 
hope  I  humbly  presume  to  intreat  your  honors  to  restore  me. 

The  time  I  enjoyed  my  former  commission  was  short  and  unfor- 
tunate— an  officer  only  a  single  year.  No  complaint  of  the  least 
dishonesty,  or  intemperance,  ever  appeared  against  me ;  and  if  I 
am  so  happy  as  to  succeed  in  this  my  humble  petition.  I  will  en- 
deavor that  my  future  conduct  shall  as  much  engage  your  honors' 
approbation,  as  my  former  has  merited  your  displeasure. 
I  am  your  honors'  most  dutiful 
humble  servant, 

THOMAS  PAINE. 

London,  July  3,  1766. 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  17 

LETTER  TO  DR.  GOLDSMITH. 


HoNoiiED  Sir  : 

Herewith  I  present  you  with  the  case  of  the  officers  of  Excise. 
A  compliment  of  this  kind  from  an  entire  stranger  may  appear 
somewhat  singular;  but  the  following  reasons  and  information  will, 
I  presume^  sufficiently  apologize.  I  act  myself  in  the  humble 
station  of  an  officer  of  Excise,  though  somewhat  differently  circum- 
stanced to  what  many  of  them  are,  and  have  been  the  principal 
promoter  of  a  plan  for  applying  to  parliament  this  session  for  an 
increase  of  salary.  A  petition  for  this  purpose  has  been  circulated 
through  every  part  of  the  kingdom,  and  signed  by  all  the  officers 
therein.  A  subscription  of  three  shillings  per  officer  is  raised, 
amounting  to  upwards  of  £500,  for  supporting  the  expenses.  The 
Excise  officers  in  all  cities  and  corporate  towns,  have  obtained  let- 
ters of  recommendation  from  the  electors  to  the  members  in  their 
behalf,  many  or  most  of  whom  have  promised  tlieir  support.  The 
enclosed  case  we  have  presented  to  most  of  the  members,  and  shall 
to  all,  before  the  petition  appear  in  the  house.  The  memorial  be- 
fore you,  met  with  so  much  approbation  while  in  manuscript,  that 
I  was  advised  to  print  4000  copies :  3000  of  which  were  subscribed 
for  the  officers  in  general,  and  the  remaining  1000  reserved  for 
presents.  Since  the  delivering  them  I  have  received  so  many 
letters  of  thanks  and  approbation  for  the  performance,  that  were  I 
not  rather  singularly  modest,  I  should  insensibly  become  a  little 
vain.  Th«.  literary  fame  of  Dr.  Goldsmith  has  induced  me  to  pre- 
sent one  to  him,  such  as  it  is.  It  is  my  first  and  only  attempt,  and 
even  now  I  should  not  have  undertaken  it,  had  I  not  been  particu- 
larly applied  to  by  some  of  my  superiors  in  office.  I  have  some 
few  questions  io  trouble  Dr.  Goldsmitli  with,  and  should  esteem  his 
company  for  ai  hour  or  two,  to  partake  of  a  bottle  of  wine,  or  any 
thing  else,  avi  apologize  for  this  trouble,  as  a  singular  favor  con- 
ferred on 

His  unknown 
Humble  servant  and  admirer, 

THOMAS  PAINE. 
Excise  Coffee  House, 

Broad  Street,  Dec.  21,  1772. 

P.  S.  Sl'fjll  take  the  liberty  of  waiting  on  you  in  a  day  or  two. 


18  MISCELLANEOUS  LETTEUS  AND  ESSAYS. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  FIRST  NUMBER  OF  THE 
PENNSYLVANIA  MAGAZINE. 


To  the  Public. 

The  design  of  this  work  has  been  so  fully  expressed  in  the 
printed  proposals,  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  trouble  the  reader  now 
with  a  formal  preface  ;  and  instead  of  that  vain  parade  with  which 
publications  of  this  kind  are  introduced  to  the  public,  we  shall  con- 
tent ourselves  with  soliciting  their  candor,  till  our  more  qualified 
labors  shall  entitle  us  to  their  praise. 

The  generous  and  considerate  will  recollect,  that  imperfection  is 
natural  to  infancy ;  and  that  nothing  claims  their  patronage  with  a 
better  grace  than  those  undertakings  which,  besides  their  infant 
state,  have  many  formidable  disadvantages  to  oppress  them. 

We  presume  it  is  unnecessary  to  inform  our  friends  that  we  en- 
counter all  the  inconveniences  which  a  Magazine  can  possibly  start 
with.  Unassisted  by  imported  materials,  we  are  destined  to  create, 
what  our  predecessors,  in  this  walk,  had  only  to  compile.  And 
the  present  perplexities  of  our  affairs  have  rendered  it  somewhat 
difficult  for  us  to  procure  the  necessary  aids. 

Thus  encompassed  with  difficulties,  the  first  number  of  The 
Pennsylvania  Magazine  entreats  a  favorable  reception ;  of  which 
we  shall  only  say,  like  the  snowdrop,  it  comes  forth  in  a  barren 
season,  and  contents  hself  with  foretelling,  that  choicer  flowers 
are  preparing  to  appear. 

Philadelphia^  January  24,  1775 


■MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  19 


FOR  THE  PENNSYLVANIA  MAGAZINE. 


Cupid  and  Hymen,     An  Original. 

As  the  little  amorous  deity  was  one  day  winging  his  way  over  a 
village  in  Arcadia,  he  was  drawn  by  the  sweet  sound  of  the  pipe 
and  tabor,  to  descend  and  see  what  was  the  matter.  The  gods 
themselves  are  sometimes  ravished  with  the  simplicity  of  mortals. 
The  groves  of  Arcadia  were  once  the  country  seats  of  the  celestials, 
where  they  relaxed  from  the  business  of  the  skies,  and  partook  of 
ihe  diversions  of  the  villagers.  Cupid  being  descended,  was  charm- 
ed with  the  lovely  appearance  of  the  place.  Every  thing  he  saw 
had  an  air  of  pleasantness.  Every  shepherd  was  in  his  holyday 
dress,  and  every  shepherdess  was  decorated  with  a  profusion  of 
flowers.  The  sound  of  labor  was  not  heard  among  them.  The 
little  cottages  had  a  peaceable  look,  and  were  almost  hidden  with 
arbors  of  jessamine  and  myrde.  The  way  to  the  temple  was  strewed 
with  flowers,  and  enclosed  with  a  number  of  garlands  and  green 
arches.  "  Surely,"  quoth  Cupid,  "  here  is  a  festival  today.  I'll 
hasten  and  inquire  the  matter." 

So  saying,  he  concealed  his  bow  and  quiver,  and  took  a  turn 
through  the  village :  As  he  approached  a  building  distinguished 
from  all  the  rest  by  the  elegance  of  its  appearance,  he  heard  a 
sweet  confusion  of  voices  mingled  with  instrumental  music.  "  What 
is  the  matter,"  said  Cupid  to  a  swain  who  was  sitting  under  a  syca- 
more by  the  way-side,  and  humming  a  very  melancholy  tune,  "why 
are  you  not  at  the  feast,  and  why  are  you  so  sadl"  "  I  sit  here, 
answered  the  swain,  "  to  see  a  sight,  and  a  sad  sight  'twill  be." 
"  What  is  it,"  said  Cupid,  "  come  tell  me,  for  perhaps  I  can  help 
you."  "I  was  once  happier  than  a  king,"  replied  the  swain,  "  and 
was  envied  by  all  the  shepherds  of  the  place,  but  now  every  thing 
is  dark  and  gloomy,  because" — "  Because  what  1"  said  Cupid — 
"Because  I  am  robbed  of  my  Ruralinda;  Gothic,  the  lord  of  the 
manor,  hath  stolen  her  from  me,  and  this  is  to  be  the  nuptial  day." 
"A  wedding,"  quoth   Cupid,  "and  I  know  nothing  of  it!    you 


20  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND   ESSAYS. 

must  be  mistaken,  shepherd,  I  keep  a  record  of  marriages,  and  no 
such  thing  has  come  to  my  knowledge ;  'tis  no  wedding,  I  assure 
you,  if  I  am  not  consulted  about  it."  "  The  lord  of  the  manor," 
continued  the  shepherd,  "  consulted  nobody  but  Ruralinda's  mother, 
and  she  longed  to  see  her  fair  daughter  the  lady  of  the  manor :  he 
hath  spent  a  deal  of  money  to  make  all  this  appearance,  for  money 
will  do  any  thing ;  I  only  Avait  here  to  see  her  come  by,  and  then 
farewell  to  the  hills  and  dales."  Cupid  bade  him  not  be  rash,  and 
left  him.  "  This  is  another  of  Hymen's  tricks,"  quoth  Cupid  to 
/limself,  "he  hath  frequently  served  me  thus,  but  I'll  hasten  to  him, 
and  have  it  out  with  him."  So  saying,  he  repaired  to  the  mansion. 
Every  thing  there  had  an  air  of  grandeur  rather  than  of  joy,  sump- 
tuous but  not  serene.  The  company  were  preparing  to  walk  ia 
procession  to  the  temple.  The  lord  of  the  manor  looked  like  the 
father  of  the  village,  and  the  business  he  was  upon  gave  a  foolish 
awkwarkness  to  his  age  and  dignity.  Ruialinda  smiled,  because 
she  would  smile,  but  in  that  smile  was  sorrow.  Hymen  with  a 
torch  faintly  burning  on  one  side  only  stood  ready  to  accompany 
them.  The  gods  when  they  please  can  converse  in  silence,  and  in 
that  language  Cupid  began  on  Hymen. 

"  Know,  Hymen,"  said  he,  "  that  1  am  your  master.  Indulgent 
Jove  gave  you  to  me  as  a  clerk,  not  as  a  rival,  much  less  a  superior. 
'Tis  my  province  to  form  the  union,  and  yours  to  witness  it.  But 
of  late  you  have  treacherously  assumed  to  set  up  for  yourself.  'Tis 
true  you  may  chain  couples  together  like  criminals,  but  you  cannot 
yoke  them  like  lovers ;  besides  you  are  such  a  dull  fellow  when  I 
am  not  with  you,  that  you  poison  the  felicities  of  life.  You  have 
not  a  grace  btit  what  is  borrowed  from  me.  As  v/ell  may  the  moon 
attempt  to  enlighten  the  earth  without  tlie  sun,  as  you  to  bestow 
happiness  when  1  am  absent.  At  best  you  are  but  a  temporal  and 
a  temporary  god,  whom  Jove  has  appointed  not  to  bestow,  but  to 
secure  happiness,  and  restrain  the  infidelity  of  mankind.  But  as- 
sure'yourself  that  I'll  complain  of  you  to  the  synod." 

"This  is  very  high  indeed,"  replied  Hymen,  "to  be  called  to  an 
account  by  such  a  boy  of  a  god  as  you  are.  You  are  not  of  such 
importance  in  the  world  as  your  vanity  thinks  ;  for  my  own  part  I 
have  enlisted  myself  with  another  master,  and  can  very  well  do 
without  you.  Plutus*  and  I  are  greater  than  Cupid ;  you  may 
complain  and  welcome,  for  Jove  himself  descended  in  a  silver 
*  God  of  riches. 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSATS.  21 

shower  and  conquered :  and  by  the  same  power  the  lord  of  the 
manor  hath  won  a  damsel,  in  spite  of  all  the  arrows  in  your  quiver." 
Cupid,  incensed  at  this  reply,  resolved  to  support  his  authority, 
and  expose  the  folly  of  Hymen's  pretensions  to  independence.  As 
the  quarrel  was  carried  on  in  silence,  the  company  were  not  inter- 
rupted by  it.  The  procession  began  to  set  forward  to  the  temple, 
where  the  ceremony  was  to  be  performed.  The  lord  of  the  manor 
led  the  beautiful  Ruralinda  like  a  lamb  devoted  to  the  sacrifice 
Cupid  immediately  despatched  a  petition  for  assistance  to  his  mothe 
on  one  of  the  sun-beams,  and  the  same  messenger  returning  in  an 
instant,  informed  him  that  whatever  he  wished  should  be  done.  He 
immediately  cast  the  old  Lord  and  Ruralinda  into  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  sleeps  ever  known.  They  continued  walking  in  the 
procession,  talking  to  each  other,  and  observing  every  ceremony 
with  as  much  order  as  if  they  had  been  awake;  their  souls  had  in 
a  manner  crept  from  their  bodies,  as  snakes  creep  from  their  skin, 
and  leave  a  perfect  appearance  of  themselves  behind.  And  so 
rapidly  does  imagination  change  the  landscape  of  life,  that  in  the 
same  space  of  time  which  passed  over  while  they  were  walking  to 
the  temple,  they  both  ran  through,  in  a  strange  variety  of  dreams, 
seven  years  of  wretched  matrimony.  In  which  imaginary  time, 
Gothic  experienced  all  the  mortification  which  age  wedded  to  youth 
must  expect ;  and  she  all  the  infelicity  which  such  a  sale  and  sacri- 
fice of  her  person  justly  deserved. 

In  this  state  of  reciprocal  discontent  they  arrived  at  the  temple: 
Cupid  still  continued  them  in  their  slumber,  and  in  order  to  expose 
the  consequences  of  such  marriages,  he  wrought  so  magically  on  the 
imaginations  of  them  both,  that  he  drove  Gothic  distracted  at  the 
supposed  infidelity  of  his  wife,  and  she  mad  with  joy  at  the  supposed 
death  of  her  husband;  and  just  as  the  ceremony  was  about  to  be 
performed,  each  of  them  broke  out  into  such  passionate  soHloquies, 
as  threw  the  whole  company  into  confusion.  He  exclaiming,  she 
rejoicing;  he  imploring  death  to  relieve  him,  and  she  preparing  to 
bury  him;  gold,  quoth  Ruralinda,  may  be  bought  too  dear,  but  the 
grave  has  befriended.  The  company  believing  them  mad,  convey- 
ed them  away,  Gothic  to  his  mansion,  and  Ruralinda  to  her  cottage. 
The  next  day  they  awoke,  and  being  grown  wise  without  loss  of 
time,  or  the  pain  of  real  experience,  they  mutually  declined  pro- 
ceeding any  farther.  The  old  Lord  continued  as  he  was,  and  ge- 
nerously bestowed  a  handsome  dowry  on  Ruralinda,  who  was  soon 


22  MISCELLANEOUS     LETTERS   AND   ESSAYS. 

after  wedded  to  the  young  shepherd,  that  had  so  piteously  bewailed 
the  loss  of  her.  The  authority  of  Cupid  was  reestablished,  and 
Hymen  ordered  never  more  to  appear  in  the  village,  unless  Cupid 
introduced  him.  Esop. 


ANECDOTE  OF  LORD  MALMSBURY  WHEN  MINISTER 
AT  PARIS. 


New  Rochelle,  April  26,  1806. 
Mr.  Duane, 

I  SEE,  by  the  English  papers,  that  some  conversations  have  lately 
taken  place  in  Parliament  in  England,  on  the  subject  of  repealing 
the  act  that  incorporated  the  members  elected  in  Ireland  with  the 
Parliament  elected  in  England,  so  as  to  form  only  one  Parliament. 

As  England  could  not  domineer  Ireland  more  despotically  than 
it  did  through  the  Irish  Parliament,  people  were  generally  at  a  loss, 
(as  well  they  might  be,)  to  discover  any  motive  for  that  union,  more 
especially  as  it  was  pushed  with  unceasing  activity  against  all  oppo- 
sition. The  following  anecdote,  which  was  known  but  to  few  per- 
sons, and  to  none,  I  believe,  in  England,  except  the  former  minister, 
will  unveil  the  mystery. 

"  When  Lord  Malmsbury  arrived  in  Paris,  in  the  time  of  the 
Directory  Government,  to  open  a  negociation  for  a  peace,  his  cre- 
dentials ran  in  the  old  style  of  "  George,  by  the  grace  of  God,  of 
Great  Britain,  France,  and  Ireland,  king" — Malmsbury  was  in- 
formed that  although  the  assumed  title  of  king  of  France,  m  his 
credentials,  would  not  prevent  France  opening  a  negociation,  yet 
that  no  treaty  of  peace  could  be  concluded  until  that  assumed  title 
was  renounced.  Pit  then  hit  on  the  Union  Bill,  under  which  the 
assumed  title  of  king  of  France  was  discontinued." 

THOMAS  PAINF* 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS   AND    ESSAYS.  23 


TO  A  FRIEND. 


New  Rochelle,  Jan.  16,  1805. 
Esteemed  Friend, 

1  have  received  two  letters  from  you,  one  giving  an  account  of 
your  taking  Thomas  to  Mr.  Fowler,  the  other  dated  Jan.  12 ;  I 
did  not  answer  the  first,  because  I  hoped  to  see  you  the  next  Sa- 
turday or  the  Saturday  after.  What  you  heard  of  a  gun  being 
fired  into  the  room  is  true ;  Robert  and  Rachel  were  both  gone  out 
to  keep  Christmas  Eve,  and  about  eight  o'clock  at  night  the  gun 
was  fired  ;  I  ran  immediately  out,  one  of  Mr.  Dean's  boys  with  me, 
but  the  person  that  had  done  it  was  gone ;  I  directly  suspected 
who  it  was,  and  hallowed  to  him  by  name,  that  he  was  discovered. 
I  did  this  that  the  party  who  fired  might  know  I  was  on  the  watch. 
I  cannot  find  any  ball,  but  whatever  the  gun  was  charged  with 
passed  through  about  three  or  four  inches  below  the  window,  making 
a  hole  large  enough  for  a  finger  to  go  through ;  the  muzzle  must 
have  been  very  near,  as  the  place  is  black  with  the  powder,  and 
the  glass  of  the  window  is  shattered  to  pieces.  Mr.  Shule,  after 
examining  the  place,  and  getting  what  information  could  be  had, 
issued  a  warrant  to  take  up  Derrick,  and  after  examination  commit- 
ted him.  He  is  now  on  bail  (five  hundred  dollars)  to  take  his  trial 
at  the  Supreme  Court  in  May  next.  Derrick  dwes  me  forty-eight 
dollars,  for  which  I  have  his  note,  and  he  was  to  work  it  out  in 
making  stone  fence,  which  he  has  not  even  begun,  and  besides  this 
1  have  to  pay  forty-two  pounds  eleven  shillings,  for  which  I  had 
passed  my  word  for  him  at  Mr.  Pelton's  store.  Derrick  borrowed 
the  gun  under  pretence  of  giving  Mrs.  Bayeaux  a  Christmas  gun. 
He  was  with  Purdy  about  two  hours  before  the  attack  on  the  house 
was  made,  and  he  came  from  thence  to  Dean's  half  drunk,  and 
brought  with  him  a  bottle  of  rum,  and  Purdy  was  with  him  when  he 
was  taken  up.  Yours,  in  friendship, 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


MISCELLANEOUS     LETTERS    AND   ESSAYS. 


A  MATHEMATICAL  QUESTION  PROPOSED. 


Mr,  Aitken  : 

Wherever  the  arts  and  sciences  have  been  cultivated,  a  particu- 
lar  regard  has  been  deservedly  paid  to  the  study  of  Mathematics. 
A  practice  has  long  prevailed  among  mathematicians  of  real  disser- 
vice to  the  science.  When  they  have  propounded  questions  in 
periodical  publications  of  this  kind,  they  have  generally  made  choice 
of  such  as  had  nothing  to  recommend  them,  but  their  difficulty  of 
solution,  and  in  which  they  seem  rather  to  have  aimed  at  victory 
over  tlieir  cotemporary  rivals,  than  the  advancement  of  knowledge. 
It  were  to  be  wished,  indeed,  that  all  questions  might  be  suppress- 
ed, but  such  as  may  be  applicable  to  some  useful  purpose  in  life. 
The  following  question,  I  hope,  is  of  that  class.  If  you  should  be 
of  the  same  opinion,  your  sticking  it  in  a  niche  in  your  Magazine, 
will  oblige 

Your  humble  servant, 

P. 

In  surveying  a  piece  of  land  I  found  the  dimensions  as  follows: 

1  side  N.  25°  30'  E.  100  pers. 

2  ......    S.  84°  30'  E.    60 

3  S.  360    0'  E.    96 

4  S.  26°  15'  W.    85 

5  N.  59°  30'  W.  140  to  the  place  of  beginning. 

But  upon  calculating  the  contents  from  a  table  of  difference  of 
latitude  and  departure,  I  found  I  had  made  some  error  in  the  field; 
for  my  Northings  and  Southings,  Eastings  and  Westings,  were  not 
exactly  equal.  Now  supposing  this  error  to  have  been  equally 
contracted  in  every  part  of  the  survey,  both  from  the  inaccuracy  of 
tailing  the  bearings  and  lengths  of  the  boundary  lines,  (which  is  the 
most  probable  supposition,)  it  is  required  to  correct  this  error,  and 
tell  the  contents  of  this  piece  of  land  without  making  a  resurvey. 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND   ESSAYS.  25 

FOR  THE  PENNSYLVANIA  MAGAZINE. 

See  the  Plate. 


Description  of  a  new  Electrical  Machine,  with  Remarks. 

There  is  no  place  where  the  study  of  electricity  has  received 
more  improvement  than  in  Philadelphia:  but  in  the  construction 
of  the  machines  the  European  philosophers  have  rather  excelled. 
The  opportunity  of  getting  glasses  blown  or  made  in  what  form 
they  please,  and  the  easiness  of  finding  artists  to  execute  any  new 
or  improved  invention,  are  perhaps  the  reasons  of  the  difference. 

I  look  on  a  globe  to  be  the  worst  form  for  a  glass  that  can  be 
used,  because  when  in  motion  you  cannot  touch  any  great  part  of 
its  surface,  without  having  the  cushion  concave,  which,  if  it  is,  will 
be  very  apt  to  press  unequally  ;  a  circumstance  which  ought  to  be 
guarded  against. 

The  cylinder  is  an  improvement  on  the  globe,  because  nearly  all 
the  surface  may  be  touched,  and  that  equally,  by  a  plain  cushion; 
yet  both  these  forms  exclude  us  from  the  inside,  and  only  one  or 
two  cushions  can  be  applied  outside. 

Those  machines  whose  glasses  are  planes,  and  revolve  vertically, 
excite  stronger  than  any  other  I  have  yet  seen ;  as  there  are  not, 
I  believe,  any  in  this  part  of  the  world,  and  as  the  construction  is 
a  late  one,  I  have  added  a  description  thereof,  that  if  the  glass  can 
be  procured,  any  gentleman  inclined  to  have  them,  may  easily  get 
the  other  parts  executed. 

Let  A  B  represent  a  board  of  convenient  length  and  breadth, 
into  which  I  insert  the  upright  pillar,  B  C,  which  must  be  cut  down 
the  middle,  or  two  single  ones  must  be  joined,  so  as  to  receive  the 
glass  plate,  D  E  F  G,  and  also  a  thin  cushion  on  each  side,  between 
the  glass  plate  and  the  insides  of  the  pillar.  In  the  centre  of  the 
pillar,  and  on  each  side  thereof,  insert  the  arms,  D  E  H  I  F  G,  so 
that  the  plate  may  go  down  between  the  whole.  The  cushions  are 
thin  pieces  of  board  or  brass,  covered  loosely  with  red  leather,  and 
stuffed,  and  slipped  in  on  each  side  between  the  plate  and  the  arms, 
Q 


26  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 

SO  that  the  plate  may  turn  between  the  eight  cushions  on  each  side 
of  it.*  The  arms  are  generally  thinned  away  as  far  as  the  cushions 
go,  to  receive  them  the  more  conveniently ;  and  in  the  back  of  each 
cushion  is  a  brass  pin  at  each  end,  and  which  lodge  in  a  notch  in 
the  pillar,  and  prevent  their  being  displaced  by  the  motion  of  the 
glass;  for  the  cushion  should  be  made  to  take  out,  to  be  cleaned,  &c. 

K  L  is  a  phial,  and  in  order  to  have  it  ready,  a  circle  is  cut  in 
the  board,  A  B,  to  receive  it.  In  the  top  of  the  phial  is  a  wood 
stopper,  M  N,  round  the  edge  of  which  is  glued  a  piece  of  woollen 
cloth  to  make  it  fix  tight.  Into  the  wood  stopper,  insert  the  brass 
stem,  O  P,  to  the  end  of  which  is  fixed  a  chain,  P  Q.  The  con- 
ductor, R  S,  is  a  brass  tube,  which  screws  on  the  stem,  O  P,  to 
which  is  fixed  eight  branches,  though  four  are  only  represented  in 
the  plate,  to  avoid  confusion,  the  branches  terminate  in  points,  di- 
rected in  the  spaces  in  the  glass  plate  between  the  cushioiis,  and  col- 
lecting the  fire  from  thence,  convey  it  by  means  of  the  conductor 
and  chain  to  the  receiver,  K  L.  The  glass  plate  is  turned  by  a 
winch  made  fast  to  an  axis,  which  goes  through  the  plate  and  pil- 
lars, (I  presume  that  a  square  hole  struck  through  the  centre  of  the 
plate  while  it  is  hot,  at  the  time  of  making  it,)  and  the  better  to  fas- 
ten the  plate  on  the  axis,  a  piece  of  wood,  the  size  of  a  small  saucer, 
is  cemented  to  each  side  of  the  plate  at  the  centre,  and  the  axis 
passes  through  the  whole. 

If  the  coating  comes  to  the  bottom  of  the  receiver,  there  needs 
no  chain  round  it,  to  carry  off  the  fire  that  will  unavoidably  steal 
down  the  outside,  that  being  supplied  by  the  phial  being  in  contact 
with  the  board,  the  board  with  the  table  it  stands  on,  &c. ;  but 
this  communication  must  by  some  means  be  cut  off,  in  order  to 
charge  the  phial  on  the  outside,  which  the  machine  that  I  saw  was 
not  supplied  with.  Any  non-conducting  body  interposed  between 
the  phial  and  board  will  supply  that  defect. 

This  is  an  exact  description,  as  far  as  my  memory  can  recollect, 
of  that  which  I  saw.  I  think  the  plate  was  about  eighteen  inches 
diameter,  and  about  two-tenths  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  and  had  a 
greenish  cast.t     A  less  plate  requires  fewer  arms. 

I  am  inclined  to  think,  but  I  offer  it  only  as  a  conjecture,  that  if 

*  The  cushions  are  represented  as  fixed  between  the  plate  and  the  arms, 
by  the  figures  1,  2,  3,  4. 

t  I  think  if  a  cylinder  was  cut  open  while  hot,  and  flexible  in  making,  and 
spread  on  a  plane  surface,  it  would  be  sufficient  for  the  purpose.  Glass 
excites  the  stronger  by  not  being  too  smooth 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  27 

additional  branches  were  fixed  to  those  represented  in  the  figure, 
and  brought  over  the  edge  of  the  glass,  and  pointed  to  the  other 
side  in  the  same  manner  as  the  first  set  does,  a  greater  if  not  a 
double  quantity  of  fire  would  be  collected.     My  reasons  are, 

1.  That  the  friction  being  on  both  sides  equal,  the  quantity  of 
matter  excited  on  each  side,  may  be  supposed  to  be  equal  like- 
wise. 

2.  That  as  glass  is  not  pervadeable  by  electrical  matter,  the 
union  of  the  two  quantities  cannot  be  effected  that  way. 

3.  That  as  glass  will  not  conduct  on  its  surface,  the  edge  of  the 
plate  will  act  as  a  barrier  between  the  two  quantities. 

Perhaps  endeavoring  to  charge  two  phials  from  the  different 
sides  of  the  plate  at  one  time,  will  best  demonstrate  this  point. 

ATLANTICUS. 
Philadelphia^  January  10. 


28 


MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS. 


NEW  ANECDOTES  OF  ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT. 


In  one  of  those  calm  and  gloomy  days,  which  have  a  strange 
effect  in  disposing  the  mind  to  pensiveness,  I  quitted  the  bus^'^town 
and  withdrew  into  the  country.  As  I  passed  towards  the  Schuylkill, 
my  ideas  enlarged  widi  the  prospect,  and  sprung  from  place  to  place 
with  an  agility  for  which  nature  hath  not  a  simile.  Even  the  eye 
is  a  loiterer,  when  compared  with  the  rapidity  of  the  thougiits. 
Before  I  could  reach  the  ferry  I  had  made  the  tour  of  the  creation, 
and  paid  a  regular  visit  to  almost  every  country  under  the  sun  ; 
and  while  I  was  crossing  the  river,  I  passed  the  Styx  and  made 
large  excursions  into  the  shadowy  regions ;  but  my  ideas  relanded 
with  my  person,  and  taking  a  new  flight  inspected  tlie  state  of 
things  unborn ;  this  happy  wildness  of  imagination  makes  a  man 
a  lord  of  the  world,  and  discovers  to  him  the  value  and  the  vanity 
of  all  its  passions.  Having  discharged  the  two  terrestial  Charons, 
v'ho  ferried  me  over  the  Schuylkill,  [  took  up  my  staff  and  walked 
into  the  woods.  Every  thing  conspired  to  hush  me  into  a  pleasing 
kind  of  melancholy,  the  trees  seemed  to  sleep,  and  the  air  hung 
round  me  with  such  unbreathing  silence,  as  if  listening  to  my  very 
thoughts.  Perfectly  at  rest  from  care  or  business,  I  suffered  my 
ideas  to  pursue  their  own  unfetterred  fancies  ;  and  in  less  time  than 
what  is  required  to  express  it  in,  they  had  again  passed  the  Styx 
and  toured  round  many  miles  into  the  new  country. 

As  the  servants  of  great  men  always  imitate  their  masters  abroad, 
so  my  ideas,  habitiqg  themselves  in  my  likeness,  figured  away  with 
all  the  consequence  of  the  person  they  belonged  to ;  and  calling 
themselves  when  united  /  and  me  wherever  they  went,  brought  me, 
on  tlieir  return,  the  following  anecdotes  of  Alexander  ;  viz. 

Having  a  mind  to  see  in  what  manner  Alexander  lived  in  the 
Plutonian  world,  I  crossed  the  Styx,  (without  the  help  of  Charon, 
for  the  dead  only  are  his  fare,)  and  enquired  of  a  melancholy  look- 
ing shade  who  was  sitting  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  if  he  could 
give  me  any  account  of  him  ;  yonder  he  comes,  replied  the  shade, 
get  out  of  the  way  or  you'll  be  run  over.  Turning  myself  round  I 
saw  a  grand  equipage  rolling  towards  me  which  filled  the  whole 


MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS.  29 

avenue.  Bless  me !  thought  I,  the  gods  still  continue  this  man  in 
his  insolence  and  pomp  !  The  chariot  was  drawn  by  eight  horses  in 
golden  harness,  and  the  whole  represented  his  triumphal  return, 
after  he  had  conquered  the  world.  It  passed  me  with  a  splendor 
I  had  not  seen  before,  and  shined  so  luminously  up  into  the  country, 
that  I  discovered  innumerable  shades  silting  under  the  trees,  which 
before  were  invisible.  As  there  were  two  persons  in  the  chariot 
equally  splendid,  I  could  not  distinguish  which  was  Alexander,  and 
on  requiring  that  information  of  the  shade  who  still  stood  by,  he 
replied,  Alexander  is  not  there.  Did  you  not,  continued  I,  tell  me 
that  Alexander  was  coming,  and  bid  me  get  out  of  the  way  1  Yes, 
answered  the  shade,  becuse  lie  was  the  fore  horse  on  the  side  next 
to  us.  Horse  !  I  mean  Alexander  the  Emperor.  /  mean  the  same, 
replied  the  shade,  for  tvhatever  he  was  on  the  other  side  of  the 
water  is  nothing  now,  he  is  a  horse  here  ;  and  not  always  that, 
for  when  he  is  apprehensive  that  a  good  licking  is  intended  for 
him,  he  watches  his  opportunity  to  roll  out  of  the  stable  in  the 
shape  of  a  piece  of  dung  or  in  any  other  disguise  he  can  escape. 
On  this  information  I  turned  instantly  away,  not  being  able  to  bear 
the  thoughts  of  such  astonishing  degradation  not^vithstanding  the 
aversion  I  have  to  his  character.  But  curiosity  got  the  better  of 
my  compassion,  and  having  a  mind  to  see  what  sort  of  a  figure  the 
conqueror  of  the  world  cut  in  the  stable,  I  directed  my  flight  thither. 
He  was  just  returned  with  the  rest  of  the  horses  from  the  journey, 
and  the  groom  was  rubbing  him  down  with  a  large  furze  bush,  but 
turning  himself  round  to  get  a  still  larger  and  more  prickly  one  that 
was  newly  brought  in,  Alexander  catched  the  opportunity,  and  in- 
stantly disappeared,  on  which  I  quitted  the  place,  lest  I  should  be 
suspected  of  stealing  him.  When  I  had  reached  the  banks  of  the 
river,  and  v/as  preparing  to  take  my  flight  ovei",  I  perceived  that  I 
had  picked  up  a  bug  among  the  Plutonian  gentry,  and  thinking  it 
was  needless  to  increase  the  breed  on  this  side  the  water,  was  going 
to  dispatch  it,  when  the  little  wretch  screamed  out,  Spare  Alexan- 
der the  Great.  On  which  I  withdrew  the  violence  I  was  ofiering 
to  his  person,  and  holding  up  the  emperor  between  my  finger  and 
thumb,  he  exhibited  a  most  contemptible  figure  of  the  downfall  of 
tyrant  greatness.  Afilected  with  a  mixture  of  concern  and  compas- 
sion {which  he  was  always  a  stranger  to)  I  suflered  him  to  nibble 
on  a  pimple  that  was  newly  risen  on  my  hand,  in  order  to  refresh 
him  ;   after  which  I  placed  him  on  a  tree  to  hide  him,  but  a  tom-tit 


30  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 

coming  by,  chopped  him  up  with  as  little  ceremony  as  he  put  whole 
kingdoms  to  the  sword.  On  which  I  took  my  flight,  reflecting  with 
pleasure  that  I  was  not  Alexander  the  Great. 

Esop. 


TO  THOMAS  CLIO  RICKMAN. 


New  York,  March  8,  1803. 
My  dear  friend, 

Mr.  Munroe,  who  is  appointed  Minister  Extraordinary  to  France, 
takes  charge  of  this,  to  be  delivered  to  Mr.  Este,  banker,  in  Paris, 
to  be  forwarded  to  you. 

I  arrived  at  Baltimore  on  the  30th  October,  and  you  can  have 
no  idea  of  the  agitation  which  my  arrival  occasioned.  From  New 
Hampshire  to  Georgia,  (an  extent  of  1500  miles,)  every  newspaper 
was  filled  with  applause  or  abuse. 

My  property  in  this  country  has  been  taken  care  of  by  my  friends, 
and  is  now  worth  six  thousand  pounds  sterling,  which  put  in  the 
funds  will  bring  me  four  hundred  pounds  sterling  a  year. 

Remember  me  in  friendship  and  afiection  to  your  wife  and  family, 
and  in  the  circle  of  our  friends. 

I  am  but  just  arrived  here,  and  the  minister  sails  in  a  few  hours, 
so  that  I  have  but  just  time  to  write  you  this.     If  he  should  not  sail 
this  tide,  I  will  write  to  my  good  friend  Colonel  Bosville,  but  in 
any  case,  I  request  you  to  wait  on  him  for  me. 
Yours,  in  friendship, 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  31 


REFLECTIONS  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  DEATH  OF 
LORD  CLIVE. 


Ah  !  The  tale  is  told — the  scene  is  ended — and  the  curtain  falls. 
As  an  emblem  of  the  vanity  of  all  earthly  pomp,  let  his  monument 
be  a  globe,  but  be  that  globe  a  bubble ;  let  his  effigy  be  a  man 
walking  round  it  in  his  sleep ;  and  let  Fame,  in  the  character  of  a 
shadow,  inscribe  his  honors  on  the  air. 

I  view  him  but  as  yesterday  on  the  burning  plains  of  Plassey,* 
doubtful  of  life,  health,  or  victory.  I  see  him  in  the  instant  when 
"  To  he  or  not  to  6e,"  were  equal  chances  to  a  human  eye.  To  be 
a  lord  or  a  slave,  to  return  loaded  with  the  spoils,  or  remain  min- 
gled with  the  dust  of  India.  Did  necessity  always  justify  the  se- 
verity of  a  conqueror,  the  rude  tongue  of  censure  would  be  silent, 
and  however  painfully  he  might  look  back  on  scenes  of  horror,  the 
pensive  reflection  would  not  alarm  him.  Though  his  feelings  suf- 
fered, his  conscience  would  be  acquitted.  The  sad  remembrance 
would  move  serenely,  and  leave  the  mind  without  a  wound.  But 
oh,  India!  thou  loud  proclaimer  of  European  cruelties  !  thou  bloody 
monument  of  unnecessary  deaths  !  be  tender  in  the  day  of  inquiry, 
and  show  a  Christian  world  thou  canst  suffer  and  forgive. 

Departed  from  India,  and  loaded  with  plunder,  I  see  him  doubling 
the  Cape  and  looking  wistfully  to  Europe.  I  see  him  contemplating 
on  years  of  pleasure,  and  gratifying  his  ambition  with  expected 
honors.  I  see  his  arrival  pompously  announced  in  every  newspa- 
per, his  eager  eye  rambling  through  the  crowd  in  quest  of  homage, 
and  his  ear  listening  lest  an  applause  should  escape  him.  Happily 
for  him  he  arrived  before  his  faine,  and  the  short  interval  was  a 
time  of  rest.  From  the  crowd  I  follow  him  to  court,  I  see  him  en- 
veloped in  the  sunshine  of  sovereign  favor,  rivalling  the  great  in 
honors,  the  proud  in  splendor,  and  the  rich  in  wealth.  -From  the 
court  I  trace  him  to  the  country ;  his  equipage  moves  like  a  camp ; 

*Battle  of  Plassey,  in  the  East  Indies,  where  Lord  Clive,  at  that  time 
Colonel  Clive,  acquired  an  immense  fortune,  and  from  which  place  his 
title  is  taken. 


32  MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS. 

every  village  bell  proclaims  his  coming ;  the  wondering  peasants 
admire  his  pomp,  and  his  heart  runs  over  with  joy. 

But,  alas !  (not  satisfied  with  unaccountable  thousands)  I  accom- 
pany him  again  to  India.  I  mark  the  variety  of  countenances 
which  appear  at  his  landing — Confusion  spreads  the  news — every 
passion  seems  alarmed — the  wailing  widow,  the  crying  orphan,  and 
the  childless  parent  remember  and  lament ;  the  rival  Nabobs  court 
his  favor ;  the  rich  dread  his  power — and  the  poor  his  severity. 
Fear  and  terror  march  like  pioneers  before  his  camp — murder  and 
rapine  accompany  it — famine  and  wretchedness  follow  it  in  the  rear. 

Resolved  on  accumulating  an  unbounded  fortune,  he  enters  into 
all  the  schemes  of  war,  treaty,  and  intrigue.  The  British  sword 
is  set  up  for  sale ;  the  heads  of  contending  Nabobs  are  offered  at 
a  price,  and  the  bribe  taken  from  both  sides.  Thousands  of  men 
or  money  are  trifles  in  an  Indian  bargain.  The  field  is  an  empire, 
and  the  treasure  almost  without  end.  The  wretched  inhabitants 
are  glad  to  compound  for  offences  never  committed,  and  to  pur- 
chase at  any  rate  the  privilege  to  breathe;  while  he,  the  sole  lord 
of  their  lives  and  fortunes,  disposes  of  either  as  he  pleases,  and 
prepares  for  Europe.* 

Uncommon  fortunes  require  an  imcommon  date  of  life  to  enjoy 
them  in.     The  usual  period  is  spent  in  preparing  to  live :  and  un- 

*  In  April,  1773,  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  under  the  name 
of  the  Select  Committee,  were  appointed  by  the  House  to  inquire  into  the 
East  India  affairs,  and  the  conduct  of  the  several  Governors  of  Bengal 
The  Committee  having  gone  through  the  examination.  General  Burgoyne, 
the  chairman,  prefaced  their  report  to  the  House,  informing  them,  "That 
the  reports  contained  accounts  shocking  to  human  nature,  that  the  most  in- 
famous designs  had  been  carried  into  execution  by  perfidy  and  murder.  He 
recapitulated  the  v/retched  situation  of  the  East  Indian  princes,  who  held 
their  dignities  on  the  precariousconditionof  being  the  higliest  bribers.  No 
claim,  however  just  on  their  part,  he  said,  could  be  admitted  without  being 
introduced  with  enormous  sums  of  rupees,  nor  any  prince  suffered  to  reign 
long,  who  did  not  quadrate  with  this  idea;  and  that  Lord  Clive,  over  and 
above  the  enormous  sums  he  might  with  some  appearance  of  justice  lay  claim 
to,  Iiad  obtained  others  to  which  he  could  have  no  title.  He  (General  Bur. 
goyne)  therefore  moved,  "That  it  appears  to  this  house,  that  Robert  Lord 
Clive,  baron  of  Plassey,  about  the  time  of  deposing  Surajah  Dowla,  Nabob 
of  Bengal,  and  establishing  Meer  Jaffierin  his  room,  did,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  the  power  with  which  he  was  intrusted,  as  member  of  the  Select 
Committee  in  India,  and  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  British  forces  there, 
obtain  and  possess  himself  of  two  lacks  and  80,000  rupees,  as  member  of  the 
Select  Committee  ;  a  further  sum  of  two  lacks  of  rupees,  as  Commander  in 
Chief;  a  further  sum  of  16  lacks  of  rupees,  or  more,  under  the  denomination 
of  private  donations;  which  sums,  amounting  together  to  20  lacks  and  80- 
000  rupees,  were  of  the  value,  in  English  money,  of  :£234,000,  and  that  in 
BO  doing,  the  said  Robert  Lord  Clive  abused  the  powers  with  which  he  was 
intrusted,  to  the  evil  example  of  the  servants  of  the  public." 


MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS.  33 

less  nature  prolongs  the  time,  fortune  bestows  her  excess  of  favors 
in  vain. 

The  Conqueror  of  the  East  having  nothing  more  to  expect  from 
the  one,  has  all  his  court  to  make  to  the  other.  Anxiety  for  wealth 
gives  place  to  anxiety  for  life  ;  and  wisely  recollecting  that  the  sea 
is  no  respecter  of  persons,  resolves  on  taking  his  route  to  Europe  by 
land.  Little  beings  move  unseen,  or  unobserved,  but  he  engrosses 
whole  kingdoms  in  his  march,  and  is  gazed  at  like  a  comet.  The 
burning  desart,  the  pathless  mountains,  and  the  fertile  valleys,  are 
in  their  turns  explored  and  passed  over.  No  material  accident  dis- 
tresses his  progress,  and  England  once  more  receives  the  spoiler. 

How  sweet  is  rest  to  the  weary  traveller  ;  the  retrospect  heightens 
the  enjoyment ;  and  if  the  future  prospect  be  serene,  the  days  of 
ease  and  happiness  are  arrived.  An  uninquiring  observer  might 
have  been  inclined  to  consider  Lord  Clive,  under  all  these  agree- 
able circumstances,  one,  whose  every  care  was  over,  and  who  had 
nothing  to  do  but  sit  down  and  say,  Soul  take  thine  ease,  thou  hast 
goods  laid  up  in  store  for  many  years. 

The  reception  which  he  met  with  on  his  second  arrival,  was  in 
every  instance  equal,  and  in  many,  exceeded,  the  honors  of  the 
first.  It  is  the  peculiar  temper  of  the  English  to  applaud  before 
the}'  think.  Generous  of  their  praise,  they  frequently  bestow  it 
unworthily:  but  when  once  the  truth  arrives,  the  torrent  stops,  and 
rushes  back  again  with  the  same  violence.*     Scarcely  had  the  echo 

♦  Lord  Clive,  in  the  defence  which  he  made  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
against  the  charges  mentioned  in  the  preceding  note,  very  positively  insists 
on  his  innocence,  and  very  pathetically  laments  his  situation  ;  and  after  in- 
forming  the  House  of  the  thanks  which  he  had  some  years  before  received, 
for  the  same  actions  which  they  are  now  endeavoring  to  censure  him  for, 
he  says, 

"After  such  certificates  as  these.  Sir,  am  I  to  be  brought  here  like  a  crimi- 
nal,  and  the  very  best  part  of  my  conduct  construed  into  crimes  against  the 
state  ?  Is  this  the  reward  that  is  now  held  out  to  persons  who  have  perform 
ed  such  important  services  to  their  coumtry  ?  If  it  is,  Sir,  the  future  conse 
quences  that  will  attend  the  execution  of  any  important  trust,  committed 
to  the  persons  who  have  the  care  of  it,  will  be  fatal  indeed ;  and  I  am  sure 
the  noble  Lord  upon  the  treasury  bench,  whose  great  humanitj'and  abilities 
I  revere,  would  never  have  consented  to  the  resolutions  that  passed  the  other 
night,  if  he  had  thought  on  the  dreadful  consequences  that  would  attend 
them.  Sir,  I  cannot  say  that  I  either  sit  or  rest  easy,  when  I  find  tJiat  all  I 
have  in  the  world  is  likely  to  be  confiscated,  and  that  no  one  will  take  my 
security  for  a  shilling.  These,  Sir,  are  dreadful  apprehensions  to  remain 
under,  and  I  cannot  but  look  upon  myself  as  a  bankrupt.  I  have  not  any 
thing  left  which  I  can  call  my  own,  except  my  paternal  fortune,  of  £500 
per  annum,  and  which  has  been  in  the  family  for  ages  past.  But  upon  this 
lam  contented  to  live,  and  perhaps  I  shall  find  more  real  content  of  mind 
ftnd  happiness  than  in  the  trembling  afl^uence  of  an  unsettled  fortune.     But 


34  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 

of  applause  ceased  upon  the  ear,  than  the  rude  tongue  of  censure 
took  up  the  tale.  The  newspapers,  fatal  enemies  to  ill-gotten 
wealth,  began  to  buz  a  general  suspicion  of  his  conduct,  and  the 
inquisitive  public  soon  refined  it  into  particulars.  Every  post  gave 
a  stab  to  his  fame — a  wound  to  his  peace — and  a  nail  to  his  coffin. 
Like  spectres  from  the  grave,  they  haunted  him  in  every  company, 
and  whispered  murder  in  his  ear.  A  life  chequered  with  uncommon 
varieties  is  seldom  a  long  one.  Action  and  care  will  in  time  wear 
down  the  strongest  frame,  but  guilt  and  melancholy  are  poisons  of 
quick  despafch. 

Say,  cool  deliberate  reflection,  was  the  prize,  though  abstracted 
from  the  guilt,  worthy  of  the  pains  1  Ah  !  no.  Fatigued  with  vic- 
tory he  sat  down  to  rest,  and  while  he  was  recovering  breath,  he  lost 
it.  A  conqueror  more  fatal  than  himself  beset  him,  and  revenged 
the  injuries  done  to  India. 

As  a  cure  for  avarice  and  ambition  let  us  take  a  view  of  him  in 
his  latter  years. — Ha  !  what  gloomy  being  wanders  yonder  1  How 
visibly  is  the  melancholy  heart  delineated  on  his  countenance.  He 
mourns  no  common  care— his  very  steps  are  timed  to  sorrow — he 
trembles  with  a  kind  of  mental  palsy.  Perhaps  it  is  some  broken 
hearted  parent,  some  David  mourning  for  his  Absalom,  or  some 
Heraclitus  weeping  for  the  world.  I  hear  him  mutter  something 
about  wealth — perhaps  he  is  poor,  and  hath  not  wherewithal  to  hide 
his  head.  Some  debtor  started  from  his  sleepless  pillow,  to  rumi- 
nate on  poverty,  and  ponder  on  the  horrors  of  a  jail.  Poor  man! 
I'll  to  him  and  relieve  .him.  Ha!  'tis  Lord  Clive  himself!  Bless 
me,  what  a  change  !  He  makes,  I  see,  for  yonder  cypress  shade,  a 
fit  scene  for  melancholy  hearts  !  I'll  watch  him  there  and  listen  to 
his  story. 

Lord  Clive.     "  Can  I  but  suffer  Avhen  a  beggar  pities  me.  Ere 

Sir,  I  must  make  one  more  observation,  that,  if  the  definition  of  tlic  Hon. 
Gentleman,  [General  Burgoync,]  and  of  this  House,  is  tliat  the  state,  as  ex- 
pressed in  these  resolutions,  is,  quo  ad  hoc,  the  Company,  then.  Sir,  every 
farthing  that  I  enjoy  is  granted  to  me.  But  to  be  called,  after  sixteen  years 
have  elapsed,  to  account  for  my  conduct  in  this  manner,  and  after  an  unin- 
terrupted enjoyment  of  my  property,  to  be  questioned  and  considered  as 
obtaining  it  unwarrantably,  is  hard  indeed  !  and  a  treatment  I  should  not 
think  the  British  Senate  capable  of.  But  if  it  should  be  the  case,  I  have  a 
conscious  innocence  within  me,  tliat  tells  me  my  conduct  is  irreproachable. 
Frangas,  non  flectes.  They  may  take  from  me  what  I  have  ;  they  may,  as 
thoy  think,  make  me  poor,  but  I  will  be  happy  !  I  mean  not  this  as  my  defence. 
My  defence  will  be  m.ade  at  the  bar;  and  before  I  sit  down,  I  have  one  re- 
quest to  make  to  the  House,  that  when  they  come  to  decide  upon  my  honor, 
they  will  not  forget  their  own. 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  35 

while  I  heard  a  ragged  wretch,  who  every  mark  of  poverty  had  on, 
say  to  a  sooty  sweep.  Ah,  poor  Lord  Clive !  while  he  the  negro- 
colored  vagrant,  more  mercifully  cruel,  curst  me  in  my  hearing. 

"There  was  a  time  when  fortune,  like  a  yielding  mistress,  courted 
me  with  smiles — she  never  waited  to  be  told  my  wishes,  but  studied 
to  discover  them,  and  seemed  not  happy  to  herself,  but  when  she 
had  some  favor  to  bestow.  Ah  !  little  did  I  think  the  fair  enchant- 
ress would  desert  me  thus,;  and  after  lavishing  her  smiles  upon  me, 
turn  my  reproacher,  and  publish  me  in  folio  to  the  world.  Volumes 
of  morality  are  dull  and  spiritless  compared  to  me.  Lord  Clive  is 
himself  a  treatise  upon  vanity,  printed  on  a  golden  type.  The 
most  unlettered  clown  writes  explanatory  notes  thereon,  and  reads 
them  to  his  children.  Yet  I  could  bear  these  insults  could  I  but 
bear  myself.  A  strange  unwelcome  something  hangs  about  me. 
In  company  I  seem  no  company  at  all.  The  festive  board  appears 
to  me  a  stage,  the  crimson  colored  port  resembles  blood — each  glass 
is  strangely  metamorphosed  to  a  man  in  armour,  and  every  bowl 
appears  a  Nabob.  The  joyous  toast  is  like  the  sound  of  murder,  . 
and  the  loud  laugh  are  the  groans  of  dying  men.  The  scenes  of 
India  are  all  rehearsed,  and  no  one  sees  the  tragedy  but  myself. 
Ah  !  I  discover  things  which  are  not,  and  hear  unuttered  sounds. 

"  O  peace,  thou  sweet  companion  of  the  calm  and  innocent  ? 
Whither  art  thou  fled  ?  here  take  m}^  gold,  and  all  the  world  calls 
mine,  and  come  thou  in  exchange.  O  thou,  thou  noisy  sweep,  who 
mixeth  thy  food  with  soot  and  relish  it,  who  canst  descend  from 
lofty  heights  and  walk  the  humble  earth  again,  without  repining  at 
the  change,  come  teach  thy  mystery  to  me.  Or  thou,  thou  ragged 
wandering  beggar,  who,  when  thou  canst  not  beg  successfully,  wil. 
pilfer  from  the  hound,  and  eat  the  dirty  morsel  sweetly  ;  be  thou 
Lord  Clive,  and  I  will  beg,  so  I  may  laugh  like  thee. 

"  Could  I  unlearn  what  I've  already  learned — unact  what  I've 

already  acted — or  would  some  sacred  power  convey  me  back  to 

youth  and  innocence,  I'd  act  another  part — I'd  keep  within  the 

vale  of  humble  life,  nor  wish  for  what  the  world  calls  pomp. 

"But  since  this  cannot  be, 
And  only  a  few  days  and  sad  remain  for  me, 
I'll  haste  to  quit  the  scene ;  for  what  is  life,* 
When  every  passion  of  the  soul's  at  strife  ?" 

AxLANTICtJS. 

*  Some  time  before  his  death,  he  became  very  melancholy — subject  to 
strange  imaginations — and  was  found  dead  at  last. 


36  MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS. 


TO  A  FRIEND  IN  PHILADELPHIA. 


Paris,  Blarch  16,  171  i>. 

I  LEAVE  this  place  to-morrow  for  London ;  I  go  expressly  for 
the  purpose  of  erecting  an  iron  bridge,  which  Messrs.  Walkers,  of 
Rotheram,  Yorkshire,  and  I  have  constructed,  and  is  now  ready 
for  putting  together.  It  is  an  arch  of  one  hundred  and  ten  feet 
span,  and  five  feet  high,  from  the  chord  line.  It  is  as  portable  as 
common  bars  of  iron,  and  can  be  put  up  and  taken  down  at  plea- 
sure, and  is,  in  fact,  rendering  bridges  a  portable  manufacture. 

With  respect  to  the  French  revolution,  be  assured  that  every 
thing  is  going  on  right.  Little  inconveniences,  the  necessary  con- 
sequences of  pulling  down  and  building  up,  may  arise ;  but  even 
these  are  much  less  than  ought  to  have  heen  expected.  Our  friend, 
the  Marquis,  is  like  his  patron  and  master,  General  Washington, 
acting  a  great  part.  I  take  over  with  me  to  London,  the  key  of 
the  Baslile,  which  the  Marquis  intrusts  to  my  care  as  his  present  to 
General  Washington,  and  which  I  shall  send  by  the  first  American 
vessel  to  New  York.  It  will  be  yet  some  months  before  the  new 
Constitution  will  be  completed,  at  which  time  there  is  to  be  a  pro- 
cession, and  I  am  engaged  to  return  to  Paris  to  carry  the  Ameri- 
can flag. 

In  England,  the  ministerial  party  oppose  every  iota  of  reforma- 
tion :  the  high  beneficed  clergy  and  bishops  cry  out  that  the  church 
is  in  danger ;  and  all  those  who  were  interested  in  the  remains  of 
the  feudal  system,  join  in  the  clan)or.  I  see  very  clearly  that  the 
conduct  of  the  British  government,  by  opposing  reformation,  will 
detach  great  numbers  from  the  political  interests  of  that  country ; 
and  that  France,  through  the  influence  of  principles  and  the  divine 
right  of  men  to  freedom,  will  have  a  stronger  pai*ty  in  England  than 
she  ever  had  through  the  Jacobite  bugbear  of  the  divine  right  of 
kings  in  the  Stuart  line. 

I  wish  most  anxiously  to  see  my  much  loved  America.  It  is  the 
country  from  whence  all  reformation  must  originally  spring.  I 
despair  of  seeing  an  abolition  of  the  infernal  trafiic  in  negroes. 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  37 

We  must  push  that  matter  further  on  your  side  of  the  water.  I 
wish  that  a  few  well  instructed,  could  be  sent  among  their  brethien 
in  bondage ;  for  until  they  are  enabled  to  take  their  own  part, 
nothing  will  be  done. 

I  am, 
With  many  wishes  for  your  happiness, 
Your  affectionate  friend, 

THOMAS    PAINE. 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 


TO  SIR  GEORGE  STAUNTON.  BART. 


Sir,— 

As  I  know  you  interest  yourself  in  the  success  of  the  useful  arts, 
and  are  a  member  of  the  society  for  the  promotion  thereof,  I  do 
myself  the  pleasure  to  send  you  an  account  of  a  small  experiment 
I  have  been  making  at  Messrs.  Walkers'  iron  works  at  this  place. 
You  have  already  seen  the  model  I  constructed  for  a  bridge  of  a 
single  arch,  to  be  made  of  iron,  and  erected  over  the  river  Schuyl- 
kill, at  Philadelphia ;  but  as  the  dimensions  may  have  escaped 
your  recollections,  I  will  begin  with  stating  those  particulars. 

The  vast  quantity  of  ice  and  melted  snow  at  the  breaking  up  of 
the  frost  in  that  part  of  America,  render  it  impracticable  to  erect  a 
bridge  on  piers.  The  river  can  conveniently  be  contracted  to  four 
hundred  feet,  the  model,  therefore,  is  for  an  arch  of  four  hundred 
feet  span ;  the  height  of  the  arch  in  the  centre,  from  the  chord 
thereof,  is  to  be  about  twenty  feet,  and  to  be  brought  off  on  the 
top,  so  as  to  make  the  ascent  about  one  foot  in  eighteen  or  twenty. 

The  judgment  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Paris,  has  been 
given  on  the  principles  and  practicability  of  the  construction.  The 
original,  signed  by  the  Academy,  is  in  my  possession  ;  and  in  which 
they  fully  approve  and  support  the  design.  They  introduce  their 
opinion  by  saying, 

"II  est  sur  que  lors  qu'on  pense  au  projut  d'une  arche  en  fer  de 
400  pieds  d'overture,  et  aux  effets  qui  peuvent  resulter  d'une  arche 
d'une  si  vaste  ^tendue,  il  est  difficile  de  ne  pas  61ever  des  doutes 
sur  le  succ^s  d'une  pareille  enterprise,  par  les  difficult6s  qu'elle 
presente  au  pr6miere  apergu.  Mais  si  telle  est  la  disposition  des 
parties,  et  la  manifere  dont  elles  sont  reunis,  qu'il  result  de  cet  as 
semblage  un  tout  tres  ferme  et  tr^s  solide,  alors  on  n'aura  plus  les 
memos  doutes  sur  la  reussite  de  ce  projet."* 

*  It  is  certain  that  when  such  a  project  as  that  of  making  an  iron  arch  of  four 
hundred  feet  span  is  thought  of,  and  when  we  consider  the  effects  resulting 
from  an  arch  of  such  vast  magnitude,  it  would  be  strange  if  doubts  were  not 
raised  as  to  the  success  of  such  an  enterprize,  from  the  difficulties  which  at 
first  present  themselves.     But  if  such  be  the  disposition  of  the  various  parts, 


MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS.  39 

The  Academy  then  proceed  to  state  the  reasons  on  which  their 
judgment  is  founded,  and  conclude  with  saying, 

"  Nous  concluons  de  tout  ce  que  nous  venons  d'exposer  que  la 
pont  de  fer  de  M.  Paine  est  ingenieusement  imagin6,  que  la  con 
struction  en  est  simple,  solide,  et  propre  a  lui  donner  la  force  ne- 
cessaire  pour  resister  aux  effets  resultans  de  sa  charge,  et  qu'il  merite 
qu'on  en  tente  I'execution.  Enfin,  qu'il  pourra  fournira  un  nouvel 
exemple  de  Tapplication  d'un  m^tal  dont  on  n'a  pas  jusqu'  ici  fait 
assez  d'usage  en  grand,  quoique  dans  nombre  d'occasions  il  est  peu 
^tre  employe  avec  plus  grand  succfes."* 

As  it  was  my  design  to  pass  some  time  in  England  before  I  re- 
turned to  America,  I  employed  part  of  it  in  making  the  small  essay 
1  am  now  to  inform  you  of. 

My  intention,  when  I  came  to  the  iron  works,  was  to  raise  an 
arch  of  at  least  two  hundred  feet  span,  but  as  it  was  late  in  the  fall 
of  last  year,  the  season  was  too  far  advanced  to  work  out  of  doors, 
and  an  arch  of  that  extent  too  great  to  be  worked  within  doors, 
and  as  I  was  unwilling  to  lose  time,  I  moderated  my  ambition  with 
a  little  common  sense,  and  began  with  such  an  arch  as  could  be 
compassed  within  some  of  the  buildings  belonging  to  the  works. 
As  the  construction  of  the  American  arch  admits,  in  practice,  any 
species  of  curve  with  equal  facility,  I  set  off  in  preference  to  all 
others,  a  catenarian  arch  of  ninety  feet  span,  and  five  feet  high. 
Were  this  arch  converted  into  an  arch  of  a  circle,  the  diameter  of 
its  circle  would  be  four  hundred  and  ten  feet.  From  the  ordinates 
of  the  arch  taken  from  the  wall  where  the  arch  was  struck,  I  pro- 
duced a  similar  arch  on  the  floor  whereon  the  work  was  to  be  fitted 
and  framed,  and  there  was  something  so  apparently  just  when  the 
work  was  set  out,  that  the  looking  at  it  promised  success. 

You  will  recollect  that  the  model  is  composed  of  four  paralle. 
arched  ribs,  and  as  the  number  of  ribs  may  be  increased  at  pleasure 
to  any  breadth  an  arch  sufficient  for  a  road  way  may  require,  and 
the  arches  to  any  number  the  breadth  of  a  river  may  require,  the 

and  the  method  ofuniti.ng  them,  that  the  collective  body  should  present  ir. 
whole  both  firm  and  solid,  we  should  then  no  longer  have  the  same  doubts  of 
the  success  of  the  plan. 

*  We  conclude  from  what  we  have  just  remarked  that  Mr.  Paine's  Plan 
of  an  Iron  Bridge  is  ingeniously  imagined,  that  the  construction  of  it  is  sim- 
ple, solid,  and  proper  to  give  it  the  necessary  strength  for  resisting  the  effects 
resulting  from  its  burden,  and  that  it  is  deserving  of  a  trial.  In  short,  it 
may  furnish  a  new  example  of  the  application  of  a  meto.l,  which  has  not  hith- 
erto  been  used  in  any  works  on  an  extensive  scale,  although  on  many  occa- 
eions  it  is  employed  with  the  greatest  success. 


40  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 

construction  of  one  rib  would  determine  for  the  whole ;  because  if 
one  rib  succeeded,  all  the  rest  of  the  work,  to  any  extent,  is  a 
repetition. 

In  less  time  than  I  expected,  and  before  the  winter  set  in,  I  had 
fitted  and  framed  the  arch,  or  properly  the  rib,  completely  together 
on  the  floor  ;  it  was  then  taken  in  pieces  and  stowed  away  during 
the  winter,  in  a  corner  of  a  work  shop,  used  in  the  mean  time  by 
the  carpenters,  where  it  occupied  so  small  a  compass  as  to  be  hid 
among  the  shavings,  and  though  the  extent  of  it  is  ninety  feet,  the 
depth  of  the  arch  at  the  centre  two  feet  nine  inches,  and  the  depth 
at  the  branches  six  feet,  the  whole  of  it  might,  when  in  pieces,  be 
put  in  an  ordinary  stage  wagon,  and  sent  to  any  part  of  England. 

I  returned  to  the  works  in  April,  and  began  to  prepare  for  erect- 
ing ;  we  chose  a  situation  between  a  steel  furnace  and  a  workshop, 
which  served  for  hutments.  The  distance  between  those  buildings 
was  about  four  feet  more  than  the  span  of  the  arch,  which  we  filled 
up  with  chumps  of  wood  at  each  end.  I  mention  this  as  I  shall 
have  occasion  to  refer  to  it  hereafter. 

We  soon  ran  up  a  centre  to  turn  the  arch  upon,  and  began  our 
erections.  Every  part  fitted  to  a  mathematical  exactness;  the  rais- 
ing an  arch  of  this  construction  is  different  to  the  method  of  raising 
a  stone  arch.  In  a  stone  arch  they  begin  at  the  bottom,  on  the  ex- 
tremities of  the  arch,  and  work  upwards,  meeting  at  the  crown.  In 
this  we  began  at  the  crown,  by  a  line  perpendicular  thereto,  and 
worked  downward  each  way.  It  differs  likewise  in  another  respect. 
A  stone  arch  is  raised  by  sections  of  the  curve,  each  stone  being 
so,  and  this  by  concentric  curves.  The  effect  likewise  of  the  arch 
upon  the  centre  is  different,  for  as  stone  arches  sometimes  break 
down  the  centre  by  their  weight,  this,  on  the  contrary,  grew  lighter 
on  the  centre  as  the  arch  increased  in  thickness,  so  much  so,  that 
before  the  arch  was  completely  finished,  it  rose  itself  off  the  centre 
the  full  thickness  of  the  blade  of  a  knife  from  one  hutment  to  the 
other,  and  is,  I  suppose,  the  first  arch  of  ninety  feet  span  that  ever 
struck  itself. 

I  have  already  mentioned  that  the  spaces  between  the  ends  of 
the  arches  and  the  hutments  were  filled  up  with  chumps  of  wood, 
and  those  rather  in  a  damp  state ;  and  though  we  rammed  them  as 
close  as  we  could,  we  could  not  ram  them  so  close  as  the  drying^ 
and  the  weight  of  the  arch,  or  rib,  especially  when  loaded,  would  be 
capable  of  doing ;  and  we  had  now  to  observe  the  effects  which  the 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTEUS    AND    ESSAYS.  41 

yielding  and  pressing  up  of  the  wood,  and  which  corresponds  to  the 
giving  way  of  the  hutments,  so  generally  fatal  to  stone  arches,  would 
have  upon  this. 

We  loaded  the  rib  with  six  tons  of  pig  iron,  beginning  at  the 
centre,  and  proceeding  both  ways,  which  is  twice  the  weight  of  the 
iron  in  the  rib,  as  I  shall  hereafter  more  particulai:ly  mention.  This 
had  not  the  least  visible  effect  on  the  strength  of  the  arch,  but  it 
pressed  the  wood  home,  so  as  to  gain  in  three  or  four  days,  together 
with  the  drying  and  shrinking  of  the  wood,  above  a  quarter  of  an 
inch  at  each  end,  and  consequently  the  chord  or  span  of  the  arch 
was  lengthened  above  half  an  inch.  As  this  lengthening  was  more 
than  double  the  feather  of  the  keystone  in  a  stone  arch  of  these 
dimensions,  such  an  alteration  at  the  hutment  would  have  endanger- 
ed the  safety  of  a  stone  arch,  while  it  produced  on  this  no  other 
than  the  proper  mathematical  effect.  To  evidence  this,  1  had  re- 
course to  the  cord  still  swinging  on  the  wall  from  which  the  curve 
of  the  arch  was  taken.  I  set  the  cord  to  ninety  feet  span,  and  five 
feet  for  the  height  of  the  arch,  and  marked  the  curve  on  the  wall. 
I  then  removed  the  ends  of  the  cords  horizontally  sometliing  more 
than  a  quarter  of  an  inch  at  each  end.  The  cord  siiould  then  de- 
scribe the  exact  catenarian  curve  which  the  rib  Iiad  assumed  by  the 
same  lengthening  at  the  hutments ;  that  is,  the  rising  of  the  cord 
should  exactly  correspond  to  the  lowering  of  the  arch,  which  it  did 
through  all  their  corresponding  ordinates.  The  cord  had  risen 
something  more  than  two  inches  at  the  centre,  diminishing  to 
nothing  each  way,  and  the  arch  had  descended  the  same  quantity, 
and  in  the  same  proportion.  I  much  doubt  whether  a  stone  arch, 
could  it  be  constructed  as  flat  as  this,  could  sustain  such  an  altera- 
tion ;  and,  on  the  contrary',  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  but  an  arch  on 
this  construction  and  dimensions,  or  corresponding  thereto,  might 
be  let  down  to  half  its  height,  or  as  far  as  it  would  descend,  with 
safety.  I  say,  "as  far  as  it  would  descend,"  because  the  construc- 
tion renders  it  exceedingly  probable  that  there  is  a  point  beyond 
which  it  would  not  descend,  but  retain  itself  independent  of  hut- 
ments ;  but  this  cannot  be  explained  but  by  a  sight  of  the  arch  itself. 

In  four  or  five  days,  the  arch  having  gained  nearly  all  it  could 
gain  on  the  wood,  except  what  the  wood  would  lose  by  a  summer's 
drying,  the  lowering  of  the  arch  began  to  be  scarcely  visible.  The 
weight  still  continues  on  it,  to  which  I  intend  to  add  more;  and 
there  is  not  the  least  visible  effect  on  the  perfect  curvature  or 


42  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS   AND    ESSAYS. 

streni^h  of  the  arch.  The  arch  having  thus  gained  nearly  a  solid 
bearing  on  the  wood  and  the  hutments,  and  the  days  beginning  to 
be  warm,  and  the  nights  continuing  to  be  cool,  I  had  now  to  ob- 
serve the  effects  of  the  contraction  and  expansion  of  the  iron. 

The  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Paris,  in  their  report  on  the  prin- 
ciples and  construction  of  this  arch,  state  these  effects  as  a  matter 
of  perfect  indifference  to  the  arch,  or  to  the  hutments,  and  the  ex- 
perience establishes  the  truth  of  their  opinion.  It  is  probable  the 
Academy  may  have  taken,  in  part,  the  observations  of  M.  Peronnet, 
architect  to  the  King  of  France,  and  a  member  of  the  Academy, 
as  some  ground  for  that  opinion.  From  the  observations  of  M. 
Peronnet,  all  arches,  whether  of  stone  or  brick,  are  constantly 
ascending  or  descending  by  the  changes  of  the  weather,  so  as  to 
render  the  difference  perceptible  by  taking  a  level,  and  that  all 
stone  and  brick  buildings  do  the  same.  In  short,  that  matter  is 
never  stationary,  with  respect  to  its  dimensions,  but  when  the  atmos- 
phere is  so  ;  but  that  as  arches,  like  the  tops  of  houses,  are  open  to 
the  air,  and  at  freedom  to  rise,  and  all  their  weight  in  all  changes 
of  heat  and  cold  is  the  same,  their  pressure  is  very  little  or  nothing 
affected  by  it. 

I  hung  a  thermometer  to  the  arch,  where  it  has  continued  several 
days,  and  by  what  I  can  observe  it  equals,  if  not  exceeds,  the  ther- 
mometer in  exactness. 

In  twenty-four  hours  it  ascends  and  descends  two  and  three-tenths 
of  an  inch  at  the  centre,  diminishing  in  exact  mathematical  propor- 
tion each  way ;  and  no  sooner  does  an  ascent  or  descent  of  half  a 
hair's  breadth  appear  at  the  centre,  but  it  may  be  proportionally 
discovered  through  the  whole  span  of  ninety  feet.  I  have  affixed 
an  index  which  multiplies  ten  times,  and  it  can  as  easily  be  multipli- 
ed an  hundred  times :  could  I  make  a  line  of  fire  on  each  side  the 
arch,  so  as  to  heat  it  in  the  same  equal  manner  through  all  its  parts, 
as  the  natural  air  does,  I  would  try  it  up  to  blood  heat.  I  will  not 
attempt  a  description  of  the  construction ;  first,  because  you  have 
already  seen  the  model ;  and,  secondly,  that  I  have  often  observed 
that  a  thing  may  be  so  very  simple  as  to  baffle  description.  On 
this  head  I  shall  only  say,  that  I  took  the  idea  of  constructing  A 
from  a  spider's  web,  of  which  it  resembles  a  section,  and  I  naturally 
supposed,  that  when  Nature  enabled  that  insect  to  make  a  web,  she 
taught  it  the  best  method  of  putting  it  together. 

Another  idea  I  have  taken  from  Nature  is,  that  of  increasing  the 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  43 

Strength  of  matter  by  causing  it  to  act  over  a  larger  space  than  it 
would  occupy  in  a  solid  state,  as  is  evidenced  in  the  bones  of  ani- 
mals, quills  of  birds,  reeds,  canes,  «Stc.,  which,  were  they  solid  with 
the  same  quantity  of  matter,  would  have  the  same  weight  with  a 
much  less  degree  of  strength. 

I  have  already  mentioned  that  the  quantity  of  iron  in  this  rib  is 
three  tons ;  that  an  arch  of  sufficient  width  for  a  bridge  is  to  be 
composed  of  as  many  ribs  as  that  width  requires ;  and  that  the 
number  of  arches,  if  the  breadth  of  a  river  requires  more  than  one, 
may  be  multiplied  at  discretion. 

As  the  intention  of  this  experiment  was  to  ascertain,  first,  the 
practicability  of  the  construction,  and  secondly,  what  degree  of 
strength  any  given  quantity  of  iron  would  have  when  thus  formed 
into  an  arch,  I  employed  in  it  no  more  than  three  tons,  which  is  as 
small  a  quantity  as  could  well  be  used  in  the  experiment.  It  has 
already  a  weight  of  six  tons  constantly  lying  on  it,  without  any  ef- 
fect on  the  strength  or  perfect  curvature  of  the  arch.  What  greater 
weight  it  will  bear  cannot  be  judged  of;  but  taking  even  these  as 
data,  an  arch  of  any  strength,  or  capable  of  bearing  a  greater 
weight  than  can  ever  possibly  come  upon  any  bridge,  may  be  easily 
calculated. 

The  river  Schuylkill,  at  Philadelphia,  as  I  have  already  mention- 
ed, requires  a  single  arch  of  four  hundred  feet  span.  The  vast 
quantities  of  ice  render  it  impossible  to  erect  a  bridge  on  piers,  and 
is  the  reason  why  no  bridge  has  been  attempted.  But  great  scenes 
inspire  great  ideas.  The  natural  mightiness  of  America  expands 
the  mind,  and  it  partakes  of  the  greatness  it  contemplates.  Even 
the  war,  with  all  its  evils,  had  some  advantages.  It  energized  in- 
vention and  lessened  the  catalogue  of  impossibilities.  At  the  con- 
clusion of  it  every  man  returned  to  his  home  to  repair  the  ravages 
it  had  occasioned,  and  to  think  of  war  no  more.  As  one  amongst 
thousands  who  had  borne  a  share  in  that  memorable  revolution,  I 
returned  with  them  to  the  reenjoyment  of  quiet  life,  and,  that  I 
might  not  be  idle,  undertook  to  construct  a  bridge  of  a  single  arch 
for  this  river.  Our  beloved  General  had  engaged  in  rendering 
another  river,  the  Patowmac,  navigable.  The  quantity  of  iron  I 
had  allowed  in  my  plan  for  tliis  arch  was  five  hundred  and  twenty 
tons,  to  be  distributed  into  thirteen  ribs,  in  conmiemoration  of  the 
Thirteen  United  States,  each  rib  to  contain  forty  tons;  but  although 
strength  is  the  first  object  in  works  of  this  kind,  I  shall,  from  the 


44  MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS. 

success  of  this  experiment,  very  considerably  lessen  the  quantity 
of  iron  T  had  proposed. 

The  Academy  of  Sciences,  in  their  report  upon  this  construction, 
say,  "  there  is  one  advantage  in  the  construction  of  M.  Paine's 
bridge  that  is  singular  and  important,  which  is,  that  the  success  of 
an  arch  to  any  span  can  be  determined  before  the  work  be  under- 
taken on  the  river,  and  with  a  small  part  of  the  expense  of  the 
whole,  by  erecting  part  on  the  ground.'* 

As  to  its  appearance,  I  shall  give  you  an  extract  of  a  letter  from 
a  gentlemen  in  the  neighborhood,  member  in  the  former  parlia- 
ment for  this  county,  who,  in  speaking  of  the  arch,  says,  **  In  point 
of  elegance  and  beauty,  it  far  exceeds  my  expectations,  and  it  is 
certainly  beyond  any  thing  I  ever  saw."  I  shall  likewise  mention 
that  it  is  much  visited  and  exceedingly  admired  by  the  ladies,  who, 
though  they  may  not  be  much  acquainted  with  mathematical  princi- 
ples, are  certainly  judges  of  taste. 

I  shall  close  my  letter  with  a  few  other  observations,  naturally 
and  necessarily  connected  with  the  subject. 

That,  contrary  to  the  general  opinion,  the  most  preservative 
situation  in  which  iron  can  be  placed  is  within  the  atmosphere  of 
water,  whether  it  be  that  the  air  is  less  saline  and  nitrous  than  that 
which  arises  from  the  filth  of  streets,  and  the  fermentation  of  the 
earth,  I  am  not  undertaking  to  prove  ;  I  speak  only  of  fact,  which 
any  body  may  observe  by  the  rings  and  bolts  in  wharfs  and  other 
watery  situations.  I  never  yet  saw  the  iron  chain  affixed  to  a  well- 
bucket  consumed  or  injured  by  rust;  and  I  believe  it  is  impossible 
to  find  iron  exposed  to  the  open  air  in  the  same  preserved  condi- 
tion as  that  which  is  exposed  over  water. 

A  method  of  extending  the  span  and  lessening  the  height  of  arches 
has  always  been  the  desideratum  of  bridge  architecture.  But  it 
has  other  advantages.  It  renders  bridges  capable  of  becoming  a 
portable  manufacture,  as  they  may,  on  this  construction,  be  made 
and  sent  to  any  part  of  the  world  ready  to  be  erected  ;  and  at  the 
same  time  that  it  greatly  increases  the  magnificence,  elegance,  and 
beauty  of  bridges,  it  considerably  lessens  their  expense,  and  their 
appearance  by  re-painting  will  be  ever  new;  and  as  they  may  be 
erected  in  all  situations  where  stone  bridges  can  be  erected,  they 
may,  moreover,  be  erected  in  certain  situations,  where,  on  account 
of  ice,  infirm  foundations  in  the  beds  of  rivers,  low  shores,  and  va- 
rious other  causes,  stone  bridges  cannot  be  erected.     The  last  con- 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  45 

venience,  and  whicli  is  not  inconsiderable,  that  I  shall  mention  is, 
that  after  they  are  erected,  they  may  very  easily  be  taken  down 
without  any  injury  to  the  materials  of  the  construction,  and  be  re- 
erected  elsewhere. 

I  am,  sir, 

Your  much  obliged, 

And  obedient  humble  servant, 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS   AND    ESSAYS. 


PREFACE  TO  GENERAL  LEE'S  MEMOIRS. 


The  following  Memoirs  and  Letters  of  the  late  Major-General 
Lee  have  been  in  the  possession  of  the  Editor  since  the  year  1786. 
They  were  transmitted  from  America  to  England  by  the  gentleman 
whose  name  is  subscribed  to  the  Memoirs,  and  who  was  a  member 
of  Congress  for  the  state  of  Georgia,  for  the  purpose  of  publica- 
tion. In  their  manuscript  state  they  have  been  seen  by  several 
persons  in  England,  who  expressed  a  strong  desire  of  putting  them 
to  press,  which  the  avocations  of  the  person  to  whom  they  were 
entrusted,  and  his  not  being  acquainted  with  such  undertakings,  had 
caused  hiui  to  neglect. 

As  the  subject  of  Revolutions  is  again  renewed  by  what  has  oc- 
curred in  France,  it  is  presumed,  that  whatever  relates  to  the  Mo- 
ther-Revolution, that  of  America,  will,  at  least,  afford  entertainment 
to  the  curious,  and  contribute  to  increase  the  general  stock  of  his- 
torical knowledge. 

The  reader  may  expect  to  find,  in  almost  every  thing  that  relates 
to  General  Lee,  a  great  deal  of  the  strong  republican  character. 
His  attachment  to  principles  of  liberty,  without  regard  to  place, 
made  him  the  citizen  of  the  world  rather  than  of  any  country ; 
and  from  his  earliest  youth  to  the  end  of  his  career,  this  general 
trait  in  his  character  may  be  traced. 

So  little  of  the  courtier  had  he  about  him,  that  he  never  descend- 
ed to  intimate  any  thing.  Whatever  he  spoke  or  wrote  was  in  the 
fullest  style  of  expression,  or  strong  figure.  He  used  to  say  to  Mr. 
Paine,  the  author  of  Common  Scnse^  in  America,  and  since  of 
RigJits  of  Man,  in  England,  (of  whose  writings  he  was  a  great 
admirer,)  that  "  he  hurst  forth  upon  the  ivorld  like  Jove  in  thun- 
der;"  and  this  strength  of  conception,  so  natural  to  General  Lee, 
had  it  not  been  mixed  with  a  turn  equally  as  strong  for  satire,  and 
too  much  eccentricity  of  temper,  would  have  rendered  his  conver- 
sation perpetually  entertaining. 

Though  the  Memoirs  and  every  letter  in  this  publication  are 
most  faithfully  printed  from  the  copy  transmitted  from  America, 


MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS.  A7 

the  Editor  has  omitted  many  whole  letters,  and  also  his  trial  be- 
fore the  court-martial,  as  not  sufficiently  interesting  to  balance  the 
expense  to  which  they  would  have  extended  the  work.  But  if 
any  of  the  particular  friends  or  relations  of  General  Lee  should  be 
desirous  of  seeing  them,  they  may  be  indulged  with  the  opportun- 
ity, by  leaving  a  line  at  the  publisher's,  directed  to  the 

EDITOR. 
London,  Feb.  1792. 


48  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 


TO  FORGETFULNESS. 


From  "  the  Castle  in  the  Air,''"'  to  "  the  Little  Corner  of  the 
WorWr 

Memory,  like  a  beauty  that  is  always  present  to  hear  herself 
flattered,  is  flattered  by  every  one.  But  the  absent  and  silent  god- 
dess, Forgetfulness,  has  no  votaries,  and  is  never  thought  of:  yet 
we  owe  her  much.  She  is  the  goddess  of  ease,  though  not  of 
pleasure. 

When  the  mind  is  like  a  room  hung  with  black,  and  every  corner 
of  it  crowded  with  the  most  horrid  images  imagination  can  create, 
this  kind  speechless  goddess  of  a  maid,  Forgetfulness,  is  following 
us  night  and  day  with  her  opium  wand,  and  gently  touching  first  one, 
and  then  another,  benumbs  them  into  rest,  and  at  last  glides  them 
away  with  the  silence  of  a  departing  shadow.  It  is  thus  the  tor- 
tured mind  is  restored  to  the  calm  condition  of  ease,  and  fitted  for 
happiness. 

How  dismal  must  the  picture  of  life  appear  to  the  mind  in  that 
dreadful  moment,  when  it  resolves  on  darkness,  and  to  die !  One 
can  scarcely  believe  such  a  choice  was  possible.  Yet  how  many  of 
the  young  and  beautiful,  timid  in  every  thing  else,  and  formed  for 
delight,  have  shut  their  eyes  upon  the  world,  and  made  the  waters 
their  sepulchral  bed  !  Ah  !  would  they  in  that  crisis,  when  life  and 
death  are  both  before  them,  and  each  within  their  reach,  would  (hey 
but  think,  or  try  to  think,  that  Forgetfulness  will  come  to  their  re- 
lief, and  lull  them  into  ease,  they  could  stay  their  hand,  and  lay  hold 
of  life.  But  there  is  a  necromancy  in  wretchedness  that  entombs 
the  mind,  and  increases  the  misery,  by  shutting  out  every  ray  ol 
light  and  hope.  It  makes  the  wretched  falsely  believe  they  will  be 
wretched  ever.  It  is  the  most  fatal  of  all  dangerous  delusions ;  and 
it  is  only  when  this  necromantic  night-mare  of  the  mind  begins  to 
vanish,  by  being  resisted,  that  it  is  discovered  to  be  but  a  tyrannic 
spectre.  All  grief,  like  all  things  else,  will  yield  to  the  obliterating 
power  of  time.     While  despair  is  preying  on  the  mind,  time  and 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  49 

its  effects  are  preying  on  despair ;  and  certain  it  is,  the  dismal 
vision  will  fade  away,  and  Forgetfiilness,  with  her  sister  Ease,  will 
change  the  scene.  Then  let  not  the  wretched  be  rash,  but  wait, 
painful  as  the  struggle  may  be,  the  arrival  of  Forgetfulness  ;  for  it 
will  certainly  arrive. 

I  have  twice  been  present  at  the  scene  of  attempted  suicide. 
The  one  a  love-distracted  girl  in  England,  the  other  of  a  patriotic 
friend  in  France ;  and  as  the  circumstances  of  each  are  strongly 
pictured  in  my  memory,  I  will  relate  (hem  to  you.  They  will  in 
some  measure  corroborate  what  I  have  said  of  Forgetfulness. 

About  the  year  17C6,  I  was  in  Lincolnshire,  in  England,  and  on 
a  visit  at  the  house  of  a  widow  lady,  Mrs.  E ,  at  a  small  vil- 
lage in  the  fens  of  that  county.  It  was  in  summer;  and  one  eve- 
ning after  supper,  Mrs.  E and  myself  went  to  take  a  turn  in 

the  garden.  It  was  about  eleven  o'clock,  and  to  avoid  the  night  air  of 
the  fens,  we  were  walking  in  a  bower,  shaded  over  with  hazel  bushes. 
On  a  sudden,  she  screamed  out,  and  cried  "Lord!  look,  look!" 
I  cast  my  eyes  thrnugli  the  openings  of  the  liazel  bushes,  in  the 
direction  she  was  looking,  and  saw  a  white  shapeless  figure,  without 
head  or  arms,  moving  along  one  of  the  walks  at  some  distance  from 

us.    I  quitted  Mrs.  E ,  and  went  after  it.   When  I  got  into  the 

walk  where  the  figure  was,  and  was  following  it,  it  took  up  another 
walk.  There  was  a  holly  bush  in  the  corner  of  the  two  walks, 
which,  it  being  night,  I  did  not  observe  ;  and  as  I  continued  to  step 
forward,  the  holly  bush  came  in  a  straight  line  between  me  and  the 
figure,  and  I  lost  sight  of  it ;  and  as  I  passed  along  one  walk,  and 
the  figure  the  other,  the  holly  bush  still  continued  to  intercept  the 
view,  so  as  to  give  the  appearance  that  the  figure  had  vanished. 
When  I  came  to  the  corner  of  the  two  walks,  I  caught  sight  of  it 
again,  and  coming  up  with  it,  I  reached  out  my  hand  to  touch  it; 
and  in  the  act  of  doing  this,  the  idea  struck  me,  will  my  hand  pass 
through  the  air,  or  shall  I  feel  any  thing  1  Less  than  a  moment 
would  decide  this,  and  my  hand  rested  on  the  shoulder  of  a  human 
figure.  I  spoke,  but  do  not  recollect  what  I  said.  It  answered  in 
a  low  voice,  "  Pray  let  me  alone."     I  then  knew  who  it  was.     It 

was  a  young  lady  who  was  on  a  visit  to  Mrs.  E ,  and  who,  when 

we  sat  down  to  supper  said  she  found  herself  extremely  ill,  and 

would  go  to  bed.     I  called  to  Mrs.  E ,  who  came,  and  I  said  to 

her,  "  It  is  Miss  N ."     Mrs.  E said,  "  My  God  !  I  hope 

Vou  are  not  going  to  do  yourself  any  hurt ;"  for  Mrs.  E sus- 


50  MISCELLANEOUS   LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 

pected  something.  She  rephed  with  pathetic  melancholy,  "  Life 
has  not  one  pleasure  for  me."  We  got  her  into  the  house,  and 
Mrs.  E took  her  to  sleep  with  her. 

The  case  was,  the  man  whom  she  expected  to  be  married  to,  had 
forsaken  her,  and  when  she  heard  he  was  to  be  married  to  another, 
the  shock  appeared  to  her  to  be  too  great  to  be  borne.  She  had 
retired,  as  I  have  said,  to  her  room,  and  when  she  supposed  all  the 
family  were  gone  to  bed,  (which  would  liave  been  the  case,  if  Mrs. 
£ and  I  had  not  walked  into  the  garden,)  she  undressed  her- 
self, and  tied  her  apron  over  her  head ;  which  descending  below 
her  waist,  gave  her  the  shapeless  figure  I  liave  spoken  of. 

Aided  by  the  obscurity  of  almost  midnight,  and  with  this  and  a 
white  under  petticoat  and  slippers,  for  she  had  taken  out  her  buckles, 
and  put  them  at  the  servant  maid's  door,  I  suppose  as  a  keepsake, 
■she  came  down  stairs,  and  was  going  to  drown  herself  in  a  pond  at 
the  bottom  of  the  garden,  towards  which  she  was  going  when  JNIrs. 

E screamed  out.     We  found  afterwards,  that  she  had  heard 

the  scream,  and  that  was  the  cause  of  iier  changing  her  walk. 

By  gentle  usage,  and  leading  her  into  subjects  that  might,  without 
doing  violence  to  her  feelings,  and  without  letting  her  see  the  di- 
rect intention  of  it,  steal  her  as  it  were  from  the  horror  she  was  in, 
(and  I  felt  a  compasionate,  earnest  disposition  to  do  it,  for  she  was 
a  good  girl,)  she  recovered  her  former  cheerfulness,  and  was  after- 
wards a  happy  wife,  and  the  mother  of  a  family. 

The  other  case,  and  the  conclusion  in  my  next. 

In  Paris,  in  1793, 1  had  lodgings  in  the  Rue  Fauxbourg,  St.  Denis, 
No.  63.  They  were  the  most  agreeable,  for  situation,  of  an}^  I  ever 
had  in  Paris,  except  that  they  were  too  remote  from  the  Conven- 
tion, of  which  I  was  tiien  a  member.  But  this  was  recompensed  by 
their  being  also  remote  from  the  alarms  and  confusion  into  which 
the  interior  of  Paris  was  then  often  thrown.  The  news  of  those 
things  used  to  arrive  to  us,  as  if  we  were  in  a  state  of  tranquility  in 
the  country.  The  house,  which  was  enclosed  by  a  wall  and  gate- 
way from  the  street,  was  a  good  deal  like  an  old  mansion  farm  house, 
and  the  court  yard  was  like  a  farm  yard,  stocked  with  fowls,  ducks, 
turkies,  and  geese ;  which,  for  amusement,  we  used  to  feed  out  of 
the  parlor  window  on  the  ground  floor.  There  were  some  hutches 
for  rabbits,  and  a  sty  with  two  pigs.  Beyond,  was  a  garden  of 
more  than  an  acre  of  ground,  well  laid  out,  and  stocked  with  ex- 


MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS.  51 

cellent  fruit  trees.  The  orange,  apricot,  and  greengage  plum,  were 
the  best  I  ever  tasted ;  and  it  is  the  only  place  where  I  saw  the 
wild  cucumber.  The  place  had  formerly  been  occupied  by  some 
curious  person. 

My  apartments  consisted  of  three  rooms  ;  the  first,  for  wood,  wa- 
ter, &c.,  with  an  old  fashioned  closet  chest,  high  enough  to  hang  up 
clothes  in ;  the  next  was  the  bed  room ;  and  beyond  it  the  sitting 
room,  which  looked  into  tlie  garden  through  a  glass.door ;  and  on 
the  outside  there  was  a  small  landing  place  railed  in,  and  a  flight  of 
narrow  stairs  almost  hidden  by  the  vines  that  grew  over  it,  by  which 
1  could  descend  into  the  garden,  without  going  down  stairs  through 
the  house.  I  am  trying  by  description  to  make  you  see  the  place 
in  your  mind,  because  it  will  assist  the  story  I  have  to  tell ;  and 
which  I  think  you  can  do,  because  you  once  called  upon  me  there 

on  account  of  Sir ,  who  was  then,  as  I  was  soon  afterwards, 

in  arrestation.  But  it  was  winter  when  you  came,  and  it  is  a  sum- 
mer scene  I  am  describing. 

*  *         #         * 

I  went  into  my  chamber  to  write  and  sign  a  certificate  for  them,* 
which  I  intended  to  take  to  the  guard  house  to  obtain  their  release. 
Just  as  I  had  finished  it  a  man  came  into  my  room  dressed  in  the 
Parisian  uniform  of  a  captain,  and  spoke  to  me  in  good  English, 
and  widi  a  good  address.  He  told  me  that  two  young  men,  English- 
men, were  arrested  and  detained  in  the  guard  house,  and  that  the 
section,  (meaning  those  who  represented  and  acted  for  the  section,) 
had  sent  him  to  ask  me  if  I  knew  them,  in  which  :ase  they  would 
be  liberated.  This  matter  being  soon  settled  between  us,  he  talked 
to  me  about  the  Revolution,  and  something  about  the  "Rights  of 
Man,"  which  he  had  read  in  English;  and  at  parting  o^ered  me  in 
a  polite  and  civil  manner,  his  services.  And  who  do  you  think  the 
man  was  that  offered  me  his  services  1  It  was  no  other  than  the 
public  executioner  Samson,  who  guillotined  tlie  king,  and  all  who 
were  guillotined  in  Paris ;  and  who  lived  in  the  same  section,  and 
in  the  same  street  with  me. 

*  *         «         « 

As  to  myself,  I  used  to  find  some  relief  by  walking  alone  in  the 
garden  after  dark,  and  cursing  with  hearty  good  will,  the  authors  of 
that  terrible  system  that  had  turned  the  character  of  the  Revolution 
I  had  been  proud  to  defend. 

•  Mr.  Paine  here  alludes  to  two  friends  who  were  under  arrest.     Ed. 


5^  MISCFLLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS. 

I  went  but  little  to  the  Convention,  and  then  only  to  make  my 
appearance;  because  I  found  it  impossible  to  join  in  their  tremend- 
ous decrees,  anJ  useless  and  dangerous  to  oppose  them.  My  hav- 
ing voted  and  spoken  extensively,  more  so  than  any  other  member, 
against  the  execution  of  the  king,  had  already  fixed  a  mark  tpon 
me:  neither  dared  any  of  my  associates  in  the  Convention  to  trans- 
late and  speak  in  French  for  me,  any  thing  I  might  have  dared  to 
have  written. 

*  #         ♦         * 

Pen  and  ink  were  then  of  no  use  to  me  :  no  good  could  be  done 
by  writing,  and  no  printer  dared  to  print;  and  whatever  I  might 
have  written  for  my  private  amusement,  as  anecdotes  of  the  times, 
would  have  been  continually  exposed  to  be  examined,  and  tortured 
into  any  meaning  that  the  rage  of  party  might  fix  upon  it;  ami  as 
to  softer  subjects,  my  heart  was  in  distress  at  the  fate  of  my  friends, 
and  my  harp  hung  upon  the  weeping  willows. 

As  it  was  summer,  we  spent  most  of  our  time  in  the  garden,  and 
passed  it  away  in  those  childish  amusements  that  serve  to  keep  re- 
flection from  the  mind,  such  as  marbles,  scotch  hops,  battledores, 
&c.,  at  which  we  were  all  pretty  expert. 

In  this  retired  manner  we  remained  about  six  or  seven  weeks, 
and  our  landlord  went  every  evening  into  tlie  city  to  bring  us  the 
news  of  the  day,  and  the  evening  joiu-nal. 

I  have  now,  my  "  Little  Corner  of  the  World,"  led  you  on,  step 
by  step,  to  the  scene  that  makes  the  sequel  to  this  narrative,  and  I 
will  put  that  scene  before  your  eyes.  You  shall  see  it  in  description 
as  I  saw  it  in  fact.* 

*  «         »         « 

He  recovered,  and  being  anxious  to  get  out  of  France,  a  pass- 
port was  obtained  for  him  and  Mr.  Choppin :  they  received  it  late 
in  the  evening,  and  set  off  the  next  morning  for  Basle  before  four, 
from  which  place  I  had  a  letter  from  them,  highly  pleased  with  their 
escape  from  France,  into  which  they  had  entered  with  an  enthusi- 
asm of  patriotic  devotion.  Ah,  France  !  thou  hast  ruined  the  cha- 
racter of  a  Revolution  virtuously  begun,  and  destroyed  those  who 
produced  it.  I  might  almost  say  like  Job's  servant,  "  and  I  only 
am  escaped." 

Two  days  after  they  were  gone  I  heard  a  rapping  at  the  gate, 

*  The  second  instance  of  attempted  suicide  is  omitted  from  motives  of 
personal  delicacy.  Mr.  Paine's  letter  is  continued,  as  it  contains  an  account 
of  bis  mode  of  life  before  he  was  sent  to  prison,  &.c.     Ed. 


MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS.  53 

and  looking  out  of  the  window  of  the  bed  room,  I  saw  the  landlord 
going  with  the  candle  to  the  gate,  which  he  opened,  and  a  guard 
with  niusquets  and  fixed  bayonets  entered.  I  went  to  bed  again, 
and  made  up  my  mind  for  prison,  for  I  was  then  the  only  lodger. 

It  was  a  guard  to  take  up ,  but,  I  thank  God,  they 

were  out  of  their  reach. 

The  guard  came  about  a  month  after  in  the  night,  and  took  away 
the  landlord,  Georgeit ;  and  the  scene  in  the  house  finished  with 
the  arrestation  of  myself.     This  was  soon  after  you  called  on  me, 

and  sorry  I  was  it  was  not  in  ray  power  to  render  to  ■ the 

service  that  you  asked. 

I  have  now  fulfilled  my  engagement,  and  I  hope  your  expectation, 

in  relating  the  case  of ,  landed  back  on  the  shore  of  life,  by 

the  mistake  of  the  pilot,  who  was  conducting  him  out ;  and  pro- 
served  afterwards  from  prison,  perhaps  a  worse  fate,  without  know- 
ing it  himself. 

You  say  a  story  cannot  be  too  melancholy  for  you.  This  is  in- 
teresting and  affecting,  but  not  melancholy.  It  may  raise  in  your 
mind  a  sympathetic  sentiment  in  reading  it ;  and  though  it  may 
start  a  tear  of  pity,  you  will  not  have  a  tear  of  sorrow  to  drop  on 
the  page. 

*         #         *         * 

Here,  my  contemplative  correspondent,'' let  us  stop  and  look  back 
upon  the  scene.  The  matters  here  related  being  all  facts,  aro 
strongly  pictured  in  my  mind,  and  in  this  sense,  Forgetfulness  does 
not  apply.  But  facts  and  feelings  are  distinct  things,  and  it  is 
against  feelings  that  the  opium  wand  of  Forgetfulness  draws  us  into 
ease.  Look  back  on  any  scene  or  subject  that  once  gave  you  dis- 
tress, for  all  of  us  have  felt  somo,  and  you  will  find,  that  though 
the  remembrance  of  the  fact  is  not  extinct  in  your  memory,  the 
feeling  is  extinct  in  your  mind.  You  can  remember  when  you  had 
felt  distress,  but  you  cannot  feel  that  distress  again,  and  perhaps 
will  wonder  you  felt  it  then.  It  is  like  a  shadow  that  loses  itself 
by  light. 

It  is  often  difficult  to  know  what  is  a  misfortune :  that  which  we 
feel  as  a  great  one  today,  may  be  the  means  of  turning  aside  our 
steps  into  some  new  path  that  leads  to  happiness  yet  unknown.  In 
tracing  the  scenes  of  my  own  life,  I  can  discover  that  the  condition 
I  now  enjoy,  which  is  sweet  to  me,  and  will  be  more  so  when  I  get 
to  America,  except  by  the  loss  of  your  society,  has  been  produced, 


54  MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS. 

in  the  first  instance,  in  ray  being  disappointed  in  former  projects. 
Under  that  impenetrable  veil,  Futurity,  we  know  not  what  is  con- 
cealed,  and  the  day  to  arrive  is  hidden  from  us.  Turning  then  our 
thoughts  to  those  cases  of  despair  that  lead  to  suicide,  when,  "the 
mind,"  as  you  say,  "  neither  sees  nor  hears,  and  holds  counsel  only 
with  itself;  when  the  very  idea  of  consolation  would  add  to  the  toi- 
ture,  and  self  destruction  is  its  only  aim,"  what,  it  may  be  asked, 
is  the  best  advice,  what  the  best  relief;  I  answer  seek  it  not  in 
reason,  for  the  mind  is  at  war  with  reason,  and  to  reason  ag;iin.>,t 
feelings  is  as  vain  as  to  reason  against  fire :  it  serves  only  to  tcr- 
ture  the  torture,  by  adding  reproach  to  horror.  All  reasoning  u  ilh 
ourselves  in  such  cases  acts  upon  us  like  the  reason  of  anotlier  pci  - 
son,  which,  however  kindly  done,  serves  but  to  insult  the  misorv  we 
suffer.  If  Reason  could  remove  the  pain.  Reason  would  have  pi  e- 
vented  it.  If  she  could  not  do  the  one,  how  is  she  to  perform  the 
other  1  In  all  such  cases  we  must  look  upon  Reason  as  dispossess- 
ed of  her  empire,  by  a  revolt  of  the  mind.  She  retires  herself  to 
a  distance  to  weep,  and  the  ebony  sceptre  of  Despair  rules  nionc. 
All  that  Reason  can  do  is  to  suggest,  to  hint  a  thought,  to  siirnily  a 
wish,  to  cast  now  and  then  a  kind  of  bewailing  look,  to  hold  np, 
when  she  can  catch  the  eye,  the  miniature  shaded  portrait  of  Ilopn; 
and  though  dethroned,  and  can  dictate  no  more,  to  wait  upon  us  in 
the  humble  station  of  a  handmaid. 


MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS.  55 


TO  A  GENTLEMAN  AT  NEW  YORK. 


Sir,  New  Rochelle,  Blarch  20,  1806. 

I  WILL  inform  you  of  what  I  know  respecting  General  Miranda, 
with  whom  I  first  became  acquainted,  at  New  York,  about  the  year 
1783.  He  is  a  man  of  talents  and  enterprize,  a  Mexican  by  birth, 
and  the  whole  of  his  life  has  been  a  life  of  adventures. 

I  went  to  Europe  from  New  York,  in  April,  1787,  Mr.  Jefferson 
was  then  minister  from  America  to  France,  and  Mr.  Littlepage,  a 
Virginian,  (whom  John  Jay  knows,)  was  agent  for  the  king  of  Po- 
land, at  Paris. 

Mr.  Littlepage  was  a  young  man  of  extraordinary  talents,  and  I 
first  met  with  him  at  Mr.  Jefferson's  house  at  dinner.  By  his  inti- 
macy with  the  king  of  Poland,  to  wliom  also  he  was  chamberlain, 
he  became  well  acquainted  with  the  plans  and  projects  of  the 
Northern  Powers  of  Europe.  He  told  me  of  Miranda's  getting 
himself  introduced  to  the  Empress  Catherine  of  Russia,  and  obtain- 
ing a  sum  of  money  from  her,  four  thousand  pounds  sterling ;  but 
it  did  not  appear  to  me  what  the  object  was  for  which  the  money 
was  given ;  it  appeared  as  a  kind  of  retaining  fee. 

After  I  had  published  the  first  part  of  the  "Rights  of  Man,"  ia 
England,  in  the  year  1791, 1  met  Miranda  at  the  house  of  TurnbuU 
and  Forbes,  merchants,  Devonshire  square,  London.  He  had  been 
a  little  time  before  this  in  the  employ  of  Mr.  Pitt,  with  respect  to  the 
affair  of  Nootka  Sound,  but  I  did  not  at  that  time  know  it ;  and  I  will, 
in  the  course  of  this  letter,  inform  you  how  this  connection  between 
Pitt  and  Miranda  ended;  for  I  know  it  of  my  own  knowledge. 

I  published  the  second  part  of  the  "  Rights  of  Man,"  in  London,  in 
February,  1792,  and  I.  continued  in  London  till  I  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  French  Convention,  in  September  of  that  year;  and 
went  from  London  to  Paris  to  take  my  seat  in  the  Convention,  which 
was  to  meet  the  20th  of  that  montli;  I  arrived  at  Paris  on  the  19th. 

After  the  Convention  met,  Miranda  came  to  Paiis,  and  was  ap- 
pointed general  of  the  French  army,  under  General  Dumourier; 
but  as  the  affairs  of  that  army  went  wrong  in  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1793,  Miranda  was  suspected,  and  was  brouglu  under  arrest 


5Q  MISCELLANEOUS     LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 

to  Paris,  to  take  his  trial.  He  summoned  me  to  appear  to  his 
character,  and  also  a  Mr.  Thomas  Christie,  connected  with  the 
house  of  Turnbull  and  Forbes  1  gave  my  testimony  as  I  believed, 
which  was,  tliat  his  leading  object  wus,  and  had  been,  the  emanci- 
pation of  his  country,  Mexico,  from  the  bondage  of  Spain ;  for  I 
did  not,  at  that  time,  know  of  his  engagements  with  Pitt.  Mr. 
Christie's  evidence  went  to  show  that  Miranda  did  not  come  to 
France  as  a  necessitous  adventurer ;  but  believed  he  came  from 
public  spirited  motives,  and  that  lie  had  a  large  sum  of  money  in 
the  hands  of  Turnbull  and  Forbes.  The  house  of  Turnbull  and 
Forbes  was  then  in  a  contract  to  supply  Paris  with  flour.  Miranda 
was  acquitted. 

A  few  days  after  his  acquittal  he  came  to  see  me,  and  in  a  few 
days  afterwards  I  returned  his  visit.  He  seemed  desirous  of  satis- 
fving  me  that  he  was  independent,  and  that  he  had  money  in  the 
hands  of  Turnbull  and  Forbes.  He  did  not  tell  me  of  his  affair 
with  old  Catherine  of  Russia,  nor  did  I  tell  him  that  I  knew  of  it. 
But  he  entered  into  conversation  with  respect  to  Nootka  Sound, 
and  put  into  my  hands  several  letters  of  Mr.  Pitt's  to  him  on  that 
subject ;  amongst  which  was  one  that  1  believe  he  gave  me  by  mis- 
take, for  when  I  had  opened  it,  and  was  beginning  to  read  it,  ho 
put  forth  his  hand  and  said,  "  O,  that  is  not  the  letter  1  intended  ;*' 
but  as  the  letter  was  short,  1  soon  got  through  it,  and  then  returned 
it  to  him  without  making  any  remarks  upon  it. 

The  dispute  with  Spain  about  Nootka  Sound  was  then  compro 
mised ;  and  Pitt  compromised  with  Miranda,  for  his  services,  by 
giving  him  twelve  hundred  pounds  sterling,  for  this  was  the  contents 
of  the  letter. 

Now  if  it  be  true  that  Miranda  brought  with  him  a  credit  upon 
certain  persons  in  New  York,  for  sixty  thousand  pounds  sterling,  it 
is  not  difficult  to  suppose  from  what  quarter  the  credit  came ;  for 
the  opening  of  any  proposals  between  Pitt  and  M  randa  was  already 
made  by  the  aflair  of  Nootka  Sound. 

Miranda  was  in  Paris  when  Mr.  Munroe  arrived  there  as  minis- 
ter ;  and  as  Miranda  wanted  to  get  acquainted  with  him,  I  caution- 
ed Mr.  Monroe  against  him,  and  told  him  of  the  affair  of  Nootka 
Sound,  and  the  twelve  hundred  pounds. 

You  are  at  liberty  to  make  what  use  you  please  of  this  letter 
and  with  my  name  to  it. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  57 


THE  CAUSE  OF  THE  YELLOW  FEVER,  AND  THE 
MEANS  OF  PREVENTLNG  IT,  IN  PLACES  NOT  YET 
INFECTED  WITH  IT,  ADDRESSED  TO  THE  BOARD 
OF  HEALTH  IN  AMERICA. 


A  GREAT  deal  has  been  written  respecting  the  Yellow  Fever. 
First,  with  respect  to  its  causes,  whether  domestic  or  imported. 
Secondly,  on  the  mode  of  treating  it. 

What  I  am  going  to  sugs^est  in  this  essay,  is  to  ascertain  some 
point  to  begin  at,  in  order  to  arrive  at  the  cause,  and  for  this  pur- 
pose some  preliminary  observations  are  necessary. 

The  Yellow  Fever  always  begins  in  the  lowest  part  of  a  popu- 
lous mercantile  town  near  the  water,  and  continues  there,  without 
affecting  the  higher  parts.  The  sphere,  or  circuit  it  acts  in,  is  small, 
and  it  rages  most  where  large  quantities  of  new  ground  have  been 
made  by  banking  out  the  river,  for  the  purpose  of  making  wharfs. 
The  appearance  and  prevalence  of  the  Yellow  Fever  in  these 
places,  being  those  where  vessels  arrive  from  the  West  Indies,  has 
caused  the  belief  that  the  Yellow  Fever  was  imported  fiom  thence: 
but  here  are  two  cases  acting  in  the  same  place  ;  the  one,  the  con- 
dition of  the  ground  at  the  wharfs,  which  being  new  made  on  the 
muddy  and  filthy  bottom  of  the  river,  is  different  from  the  natural 
condition  of  the  ground  in  the  higher  parts  of  the  city,  and  conse- 
quently subject  to  produce  a  different  kind  of  effluvia  or  vapor:  the 
other  case,  is  the  arrival  of  vessels  from  the  West  Indies. 

In  the  State  of  Jersey,  neither  of  these  cases  has  taken  place ; 
no  shipping  arrive  there,  and  consequently  there  have  been  no  em- 
bankments for  the  purpose  of  wharfs,  and  the  Yellow  Fever  has 
never  broke  out  in  Jerse\'.  This,  however,  does  not  decide  the 
point,  as  to  the  immediate  cause  of  the  fever,  but  it  shows  that  this 
species  of  fever  is  not  common  to  the  country  in  its  natural  state ; 
and,  I  believe  the  same  was  the  case  in  the  West  Indies,  before 
embankments  began,  for  the  purpose  of  making  wharfs,  which  al- 
ways alter  the  natural  condition  of  the  ground  ;  no  old  history,  that 
I  know  of,  mentions  such  a  disorder  as  the  Yellow  Fever. 


58  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 

A  person  seized  with  the  Yellow  Fever  in  an  affected  part  of  the 
town,  and  brought  into  the  healthy  part,  or  into  the  country,  and 
among  healthy  persons,  does  not  communicate  it  to  the  neighbor- 
hood, or  to  those  immediately  around  him ;  why  then  are  we  to 
suppose  it  can  be  brought  from  the  West  Indies,  a  distance  of  more 
than  a  thousand  miles,  since  we  see  it  cannot  be  carried  from  one 
town  to  another,  nor  from  one  part  of  a  town  to  another,  at  home? 
Is  it  in  the  air"?  this  question  on  the  case,  requires  a  minute  ex- 
amination. In  the  first  place",  the  difference  between  air  and  wind 
is  the  same  as  between  a  stream  of  water  and  a  standing  water. 
A  stream  of  water  is  water  in  motion,  and  wind  is  air  in  motion. 
In  a  gentle  breeze,  the  whole  body  of  air,  as  far  as  the  breeze  ex- 
tends, moves  at  the  rate  of  seven  or  eight  miles  an  hour;  in  a  high 
wind,  at  the  rate  of  seventy,  eighty,  or  an  hundred  miles  an  hour : 
when  we  see  the  shadow  of  a  cloud  gliding  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  we  see  the  rate  at  which  the  air  moves,  and  it  must  be  a 
good  trotting  horse  that  can  keep  pace  with  the  shadow,  even  in  a 
gentle  breeze  ;  consequently,  a  body  of  air,  that  is  in  and  over  any 
place  of  the  same  extent  as  the  affected  part  of  a  city  may  be, 
will,  in  the  space  of  an  hour,  even  at  the  moderate  rate  I  speak  of, 
be  moved  seven  or  eight  miles  to  leeward,  and  its  place,  in  and 
over  the  city,  will  be  supplied  by  a  new  body  of  air  coming  from  a 
healthy  part,  seven  or  eight  miles  distant  the  contrary  way,  and 
then  on  in  continual  succession.  The  disorder,  therefore,  is  not  in 
the  air,  considered  in  its  natural  state,  and  never  stationary.  This 
leads  to  another  consideration  of  the  case. 

An  impure  effluvia,  arising  from  some  cause  in  the  ground,  in  the 
manner  that  fermenting  liquors  produce  an  effluvia  near  their  sur- 
face that  is  fatal  to  life,  will  become  mixed  with  the  air  contiguous 
to  it,  and  as  fast  as  that  body  of  air  moves  off,  it  will  impregnate 
every  succeeding  body  of  air,  however  pure  it  may  be  when  it  ar- 
rives at  the  place. 

The  result  from  this  state  of  the  case,  is,  that  the  impure  air,  or 
vapor,  that  generates  the  Yellow  Fever,  issues  from  the  earth,  that 
is,  from  the  new  made  earth,  or  ground  raised  on  the  muddy  and 
filthy  bottom  of  the  river;  and  which  impregnates  every  fresh  body 
of  air  that  comes  over  the  place,  in  like  manner  as  air  becomes 
heated  when  it  approaches  or  passes  over  fire,  or  becomes  offensive 
in  smell,  when  it  approaches  or  passes  over  a  body  of  corrupt  ve- 
getable or  animal  matter  in  a  state  of  putrefaction. 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS.  59 

The  muddy  bottom  of  rivers  contains  groat  quantities  of  impure 
and  often  inflammable  air,  (carburetted  hydrogen  gas,)  injurious  to 
life  ;  and  which  remains  entangled  in  the  mud  till  let  loose  from 
thence  by  some  accident.  This  air  is  produced  by  the  dissolution 
and  decomposition  of  any  combustible  matter  falling  into  the  water 
and  sinking  into  the  mud,  of  which  the  following  circumstance  will 
serve  to  give  some  explanation. 

In  the  fall  of  the  year  that  New  York  was  evacuated,  (1783,) 
General  Washington  had  his  head  quarters  at  Mrs.  Berrian's,  at 
Rocky  Hill,  in  Jersey,  and  I  was  there :  the  Congress  then  sat  at 
Prince  Town.  We  had  several  times  been  told,  that  the  river,  or 
creek,  that  runs  near  the  bottom  of  Rocky  Hill,  and  over  which 
there  is  a  mill,  might  be  set  on  fire,  for  that  was  the  term  the  coun- 
try people  used,  and  as  General  Washington  had  a  mind  to  try  the 
experiment,  General  Lincoln,  who  was  also  there,  undertook  to 
make  preparation  for  it  against  the  next  evening,  November  5th. 
This  was  to  be  done,  as  we  were  told,  by  disturbing  the  mud  at  the 
bottom  of  the  river,  and  holding  something  in  a  blaze,  as  paper  or 
straw,  a  little  above  the  surface  of  the  water. 

Colonels  Humphries  and  Cob  were  at  that  time  Aide  de  Camps 
of  General  Washington,  and  those  two  gentlemen  and  myself  got 
into  an  argument  respecting  the  cause;  their  opinion  was,  that  on 
disturbing  the  bottom  of  the  river,  some  bituminous  matter  arose  to 
the  surface,  which  took  fire  when  the  light  was  put  to  it ;  1,  on  ihe 
contrary,  supposed  that  a  quantity  of  inflammable  air  was  let  loose, 
which  ascended  through  the  water,  and  took  fire  above  the  surface. 
Each  party  held  to  his  opinion,  and  the  next  evening  the  experi- 
ment was  to  be  made. 

A  scow  had  been  stationed  in  the  mill  dam,  and  General  Wash- 
ington, General  Lincoln,  and  myself,  and  I  believe  Colonel  Cob, 
(for  Humphries  was  sick,)  and  three  or  four  soldiers  with  poles,  were 
put  on  board  the  scow:  General  Washington  placed  himself  at  one 
end  of  the  scow,  and  I  at  the  other ;  each  of  us  had  a  roll  of  cart- 
ridge paper,  which  we  lighted  and  held  over  the  water,  about  two 
or  three  inches  from  the  surface,  when  the  soldiers  began  disturbing 
the  bottom  of  the  river  with  their  poles. 

As  General  Washington  sat  at  one  end  of  the  scow,  and  I  at  the 
other,  I  could  see  better  any  thing  that  might  happen  from  his  light, 
than  1  could  from  my  own,  over  which  I  was  nearly  perpendicular. 
When  the  mud  at  the  bottom  was  disturbed  by  the  poles,  the  air 


60  MISCELLANEOUS    LETTERS    AND    ESSAYS. 

bubbles  rose  fast,  and  I  saw  the  fire  take  from  General  Washing- 
ton's light  and  descend  from  thence  to  the  surface  of  the  water, 
in  a  similar  manner,  as  when  a  liglited  candle  is  held  so  as  to  touch 
the  smoke  of  a  candle  just  blown  out,  the  smoke  will  take  fire,  and 
the  fire  will  descend  and  light  up  the  candle.  This  was  demonstra- 
tive evidence,  that  what  was  called  setting  the  river  on  fire,  was 
setting  the  inflammable  air  on  fire,  that  arose  out  of  the  mud. 

I  mentioned  this  experiment  to  Mr.  Rittenhouse  of  Philadelphia 
the  next  time  I  went  to  that  city,  and  our  opinion  on  the  case,  was 
that  the  air  or  vapor  that  issued  from  any  combustible  matter, 
(vegetable  or  otherwise,)  that  underwent  a  dissolution  and  decom- 
position of  its  parts,  either  by  fire  or  water  in  a  confined  place,  so 
as  not  to  blaze,  would  be  inflanmiable,  and  would  become  flame 
whenever  it  came  in  contact  with  flame. 

In  order  to  determine  if  this  was  the  case,  we  filled  up  the  breech 
of  a  gun  barrel  about  five  or  six  inches  with  saw  dust,  and  the  up- 
per part  with  dry  sand  to  the  top,  and  after  spiking  up  the  touch 
hole,  put  the  breech  into  a  smith's  furnace,  and  kept  it  red  hot,  so 
as  to  consume  the  saw  dust ;  the  sand  of  consequence  would  pre- 
vent any  blaze.  We  applied  a  lighted  candle  to  the  mouth  of  the 
barrel;  as  the  first  vapor  that  flew  ofi"  would  be  humid,  it  extin- 
guished the  candle ;  but  after  applying  the  candle  three  or  four 
times,  the  vapor  that  issued  out  began  to  flash ;  we  then  tied  a 
bladder  over  the  mouth  of  the  barrel,  which  the  vapor  soon  filled, 
and  then  tying  a  string  round  the  neck  of  the  bladder,  above  the 
muzzle,  took  the  bladder  off. 

As  we  could  not  conveniently  make  experiments  upon  the  vapor, 
while  it  was  in  the  bladder,  the  next  operation  was,  to  gel  it  into  a 
phial;  for  this  purpose,  we  took  a  phial  of  about  three  or  four 
ounces,  filled  it  with  water,  put  a  cork  slightly  into  it,  and  introducing 
it  into  the  neck  of  the  bladder,  worked  the  cork  out,  by  getting 
hold  of  it  through  the  bladder,  into  which  the  water  then  emptied 
itself,  and  the  air  in  the  bladder  ascended  into  the  phial ;  we  then 
put  the  cork  into  the  phial,  and  took  it  from  the  bladder.  It  was 
now  in  a  convenient  condition  for  experiment. 

We  put  a  lighted  match  into  the  phial,  and  the  air  or  vapor  in  it 
blazed  up  in  the  manner  of  a  chimney  on  fire  ;  we  extinguished  it 
two  or  three  times,  by  stopping  the  mouth  of  the  phial ;  and  putting 
the  lighted  match  to  it  again  it  repeatedly  took  fire,  till  the  vapor 
was  spent,  and  the  phial  became  filled  with  atmospheric  air. 


MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS.  61 

These  two  experiments,  that  in  which  some  combustible  substance 
(branches  and  leaves  of  trees)  had  been  decomposed  by  water,  in 
the  mud  ;  and  this,  where  the  decomposition  had  been  produced  by 
fire,  without  blazing,  shows  that  a  species  of  air,  injurious  to  life, 
when  taken  into  the  lungs,  may  be  generated  from  substances, 
which,  in  themselves,  are  harmless. 

It  is  by  means  similar  to  these,  that  charcoal,  which  is  made  by 
fire  without  blazing,  emits  a  vapor  destructive  to  life.  I  now  come 
to  apply  these  cases,  and  the  reasoning  deduced  therefrom,  to  ac- 
count for  the  cause  of  the  Yellow  Fever.* 

First : — The  Yellow  Fever  is  not  a  disorder  produced  by  the 
climate  naturally,  or  it  would  always  have  been  here  in  the  hot 
months ;  the  climate  is  the  same  now,  as  it  was  fifty  or  a  hundred 
years  ago ;  there  was  no  Yellow  Fever  then,  and  it  is  only  within  the 
last  twelve  years,  that  such  a  disorder  has  been  known  to  America. 

Secondly  : — The  low  grounds  on  the  shores  of  the  rivers,  at  the 
cities,  where  the  Yellow  Fever  is  annually  generated,  and  continues 
about  three  months  without  spreading,  were  not  subject  to  that  dis- 
order in  their  natural  state,  or  the  Indians  would  have  forsaken  them ; 
whereas,  they  were  the  parts  most  frequented  by  the  Indians  in  all 
seasons  of  the  year,  on  account  of  fishing.  The  result  from  these 
cases  is,  that  the  Yellow  Fever  is  produced  by  some  new  circum- 
stance not  common  to  the  country  in  its  natural  state,  and  the  ques- 
tion is,  what  is  that  new  circumstance'? 

It  may  be  said,  that  every  thing  done  by  the  white  people,  since 
their  settlement  in  the  country,  such  as  building  towns,  clearing 
lands,  levelling  hills,  and  filling  vallies,  is  a  new  circumstance,  but 
the  Yellow  Fever  does  not  accompany  any  of  these  new  circum- 
stances. No  alteration  made  on  the  dry  land  produces  the  Yellow 
Fever,  we  must  therefore  look  to  some  other  new  circumstance, 
and  we  now  come  to  those  that  have  taken  place  between  wet  and 
dry,  between  land  and  water. 

The  shores  of  the  rivers  at  New  York,  and  also  at  Philadelphia, 

have  on  account  of  the  vast  increase  of  commerce,  and  for  the 

sake  of  making  wharves,  undergone  great  and  rapid  alterations  from 

their  natural  state,  within  a  few  years ;  and  it  is  only  in  such  parts 

of  the  shores  where  those   alterations  have  taken  place  that  the 

*  The  author  does  not  mean  to  infer  that  the  inflammable  air,  or  carburetted 
hydrogen  gas,  is  the  cause  of  the  Yellow  Fever ;  but  that  perhaps  it  enters 
into  some  combination  with  miasm  generated  in  low  grounds,  which  pro- 
duces the  disease 


62  MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS. 

Yellow  Fever  lias  been  produced.  The  parts  where  little  or  no 
alteration  has  been  made,  either  on  the  East  or  North  River,  and 
which  continue  in  their  natural  state,  or  nearly  so,  do  not  produce 
the  Yellow  Fever — the  fact  therefore  points  to  the  cause. 

Besides  several  newstreets  gained  from  the  river  by  embankment, 
there  are  upwards  of  eighty  new  wharfs  made  since  the  war,  and 
the  much  greater  part  within  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years;  the  con- 
sequence of  which  has  been,  that  great  quantities  of  filth  or  com- 
bustible matter  deposited  in  the  muddy  bottom  of  the  river  conti- 
guous to  the  shore,  and  which  produced  no  ill  effect  while  exposed 
to  the  air,  and  washed  twice  every  twenty-four  hours  by  the  tide 
water,  have  been  covered  over  several  feet  deep  with  new  earth, 
and  pent  up,  and  the  tide  excluded.  It  is  in  these  places,  and  in 
these  only,  that  the  Yellow  Fever  is  produced. 

Having  thus  shown,  from  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  that  the 
cause  of  the  Yellow  Fever  is  in  the  place  where  it  makes  its  ap- 
pearance, or  rather,  in  the  pernicious  vapor  issuing  therefrom,  I  go 
to  show  a  method  of  constructing  wharfs,  where  wharfs  are  yet  to 
be  constructed,  as  on  the  shore  on  the  East  River,  at  Corlder's 
Hook,  and  also  on  the  North  River,  that  will  not  occasion  the  Yel- 
low Fever,  and  which  may  also  point  out  a  method  of  removing  it 
from  places  already  infected  with  it.  Instead,  then,  of  embanking 
out  the  river  and  raising  solid  wharfs  of  earth  on  the  mud  bottom 
of  the  shore,  the  better  method  would  be  to  construct  wharfs  on 
arches,  built  of  stone ;  the  tide  will  then  flow  in  under  the  arch,  by 
which  means  the  shore,  and  the  muddy  bottom,  will  be  washed  and 
kept  clean,  as  if  they  were  in  their  natural  state  without  wharfs. 

When  wharfs  are  constructed  on  the  shore  lengthways,  that  is 
without  cutting  the  shore  up  into  slips,  arches  can  easily  be  turned, 
because  arches  joining  each  other  lengtiiways,  serve  as  hutments  to 
each  other,  but  when  the  shore  is  cut  up  into  slips  there  can  be  no 
hutments ;  in  this  case  wharfs  can  be  formed  on  stone  pillars,  or 
wooden  piles  planked  over  on  the  top.  In  either  of  these  cases, 
the  space  underneath  will  be  commodious  shelter  or  harbor  for 
small  boats,  which  can  come  in  and  go  out  always,  except  at  low 
water,  and  be  secure  from  storms  and  injuries.  This  method,  be- 
sides preventing  the  cause  of  the  Yellow  Fever,  which  I  think  it  will, 
will  render  the  wharfs  more  productive  than  the  present  method, 
because  of  the  space  preserved  within  the  wharf. 

I  offer  no  calculation  of  the  expense  of  constructing  wharfs  on 


MISCELLANEOUS   LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS.  63 

arches  or  piles;  but  on  a  general  view,  I  believe  they  will  not  be 
so  expensive  as  the  present  method.  A  very  great  part  of  the  ex- 
pense of  making  solid  wharfs  of  earth,  is  occasioned  by  the  car- 
riage of  materials,  which  will  be  greatly  reduced  by  the  methods 
liere  proposed,  and  still  more  so  were  the  arches  to  be  constructed 
of  cast  iron  blocks.  I  suppose  that  one  ton  of  cast  iron  blocks 
would  go  as  far  in  the  construction  of  an  arch,  as  twenty  tons  of 
stone. 

If,  by  constructing  wharfs  in  such  a  manner,  that  the  tide  water 
can  wash  the  shore  and  bottom  of  the  river  contiguous  to  the  shore, 
as  they  are  washed  in  their  natural  condition,  the  Yellow  FovtT 
can  be  prevented  from  generating  in  places  where  wharfs  are  yet 
to  be  constructed,  it  may  point  out  a  method  of  removing  it,  at 
least  by  degrees,  from  places  already  infected  with  it,  which  will  be, 
by  opening  the  wharfs  in  two  or  three  places  in  each,  and  letting 
the  tide  water  pass  through;  the  parts  opened  can  be  planked  over, 
so  as  not  to  prevent  the  use  of  the  wharf. 

In  taking  up  and  treating  this  subject,  I  have  considered  it  as 
belonging  to  natural  philosophy,  rather  than  medicinal  art;  and 
therefore  I  say  nothing  about  the  treatment  of  the  disease,  after  it 
takes  place;  I  leave  that  part  to  those  whose  profession  it  is  to 
study  it. 

THOMAS  PALNE. 

Ncto  York,  June  27,  1806. 


64  MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS. 


TO  A  FRIEND. 


New  Rochelh,  July  9,  it5U4. 
Fellow  Citizen, 

As  the  weather  is  now  getting  hot  in  New  York,  and  the  people 
begin  to  get  out  of  town,  you  ma}'  as  well  come  up  here  and  help 
me  to  settle  my  accounts  whh  the  man  who  lives  on  the  place. 
You  will  be  able  to  do  this  better  than  I  shall,  and  in  the  mean 
time  I  can  go  on  with  my  literary  works,  Avithout  having  my  mind 
taken  off  by  affairs  of  a  different  kind.  I  have  received  a  packet 
from  Governor  Clinton,  enclosing  what  I  wrote  for.  If  you  come 
up  by  the  stage,  you  will  stop  at  the  post  office,  and  they  will  direct 
you  the  way  to  the  farm.  It  is  only  a  pleasant  walk.  I  send  a 
piece  for  the  Prospect ;  if  the  plan  mentioned  in  it  is  pursued,  it 
will  open  a  way  to  enlarge  and  give  establishment  to  the  deistical 
church  ;  nut  of  tnis  and  some  other  things,  we  will  talk  when  you 
come  up,  and  the  sooner  the  better. 

Yours  in  friendship, 

THOMAS  PAINE. 

I  have  not  received  any  newspapers,  nor  any  numbers  of  the 
Prospect,  since  I  have  been  here. 

Bring  my  bag  up  with  you. 


MISCELLANEOUS   LETTERS   AND    ESSAYS.  65 


ADDRESS  AND  DECLARATION. 


At  a  select  Meeting  of  the  Friends  of  Universal  Peace  and  Li- 
bertt/,  held  at  the  Thatched  House  Tavern,  St.  Jameses  Street^ 
August  20,  1791,  the  following  Address  and  Declaration  to  our 
Fellow  Citizens  was  agreed  on  and  ordered  to  be  published. 

Friends  and  Fellow  Citizens, 

At  a  moment  like  the  present,  when  wilful  misrepresentations 
are  industriously  spread  by  the  partizans  of  arbitrary  power,  and 
the  advocates  of  passive  obedience  and  court  government,  we  think 
it  incumbent  on  us  to  declare  to  the  world  our  principles,  and  the 
motives  of  our  conduct. 

We  rejoice  at  the  glorious  event  of  the  French  Revolution. 

If  it  be  asked — What  is  the  French  Revolution  to  us  % 

We  answer,  (as  it  has  been  already  answered  in  another  place,*) 
It  is  much  to  us  as  men :  much  to  us  as  Englishmen. 

As  men  we  rejoice  in  the  freedom  of  twenty-five  millions  of  our 
fellow  men.  We  rejoice  in  the  prospect  which  such  a  magnificent 
example  opens  to  the  world.  We  congratulate  the  French  nation 
for  having  laid  the  axe  to  the  root  of  tyranny,  and  for  erecting  go- 
vernment on  the  sacred  hereditary  rights  of  man — Rights  which 
appertain  to  all,  and  not  to  any  one  more  than  to  another.  We 
know  of  no  human  authority  superior  to  that  of  a  whole  nation ; 
and  we  profess  and  proclaim  it  as  our  principle  that  every  nation 
has  at  all  times  an  inherent  indefeasible  right  to  constitute  and  es- 
tablish such  government  for  itself  as  best  accords  with  its  disposi- 
tion, interest,  and  happiness. 

As  Englishmen  we  also  rejoice,  because  we  are  immediately  in- 
terested in  the  French  Revolution. 

Without  enquiring  into  the  justice  on  either  side  of  the  reproach- 
ful charges  of  intrigue  and  ambition,  which  the  English  and  French 
Courts  have  constantly  made  on  each  other,  we  confine  ourselves 
to  this  observation : — That  if  the  Court  of  France  only  was  in 
•  Declaration  of  the  Volunteers  of  Belfast. 


00  MISCELLANEOUS   LETTERS    AND   ESSAYS. 

fault,  and  the  numerous  wars  which  have  distressed  both  countries, 
are  chargeable  to  her  alone,  that  Court  now  exists  no  longer ;  and 
the  cause  and  the'consequence  must  cease  together.  The  French, 
therefore,  by  the  revolution  they  have  made,  have  conquered  for 
us  as  well  as  for  themselves ;  if  it  be  true  that  their  Court  only 
was  in  fault,  and  ours  never. 

On  this  state  of  the  case,  the  French  Revolution  concerns  us 
immediately.  We  are  oppressed  with  a  heavy  national  debt,  a  bur- 
then of  taxes,  and  an  expensive  administration  of  government,  be- 
yond those  of  any  people  in  the  world.  We  have  also  a  very 
numerous  poor;  and  we  hold  that  the  moral  obligation  of  providing 
for  old  age,  helpless  infancy,  and  poverty,  is  far  superior  to  that  of 
supplying  the  invented  wants  of  courtly  extravagance,  ambition,  and 
intrigue. 

We  believe  there  is  no  instance  to  be  produced  but  in  England, 
of  seven  millions  of  inhabitants,  which  make  but  little  more  than 
one  million  of  families,  paying  yearly  seventeen  millions  of  taxes. 

As  it  has  always  been  held  out  by  all  administrations  that  the 
restless  ambition  of  the  Court  of  France  rendered  this  expense 
necessary  to  us  for  our  own  defence,  we  consequently  rejoice  as 
men  deeply  interested  in  the  French  Revolution,  for  that  Court,  as 
we  have  already  said,  exists  no  longer  ;  and  consequently  the  same 
enormous  expenses  need  not  continue  to  us. 

Thus  rejoicing,  as  we  sincerely  do,  both  as  men  and  Englishmen, 
as  lovers  of  universal  peace  and  freedom,  and  as  friends  to  our  own 
national  prosperity,  and  a  reduction  of  our  public  expenses,  we 
cannot  but  express  our  astonishment  that  any  part,  or  any  members 
of  our  own  government,  should  reprobate  the  extinction  of  that 
very  power  in  France,  or  wish  to  see  it  restored,  to  whose  influence 
they  formerly  attributed  (whilst  they  appeared  to  lament)  the  enor- 
mous increase  of  our  own  burthens  and  taxes.  What,  then,  are 
they  sorry  that  the  pretence  for  new  oppressive  taxes,  and  the  oc- 
casion for  continuing  many  of  the  old  taxes,  will  be  at  an  end?  If 
so,  and  if  it  is  the  policy  of  courts  and  of  court  governments,  to 
prefer  enemies  to  friends,  and  a  system  of  war  to  that  of  peace,  as 
affording  more  pretences  for  places,  offices,  pensions,  revenue,  and 
'taxation,  it  is  high  time  for  the  people  of  every  nation  to  look  with 
circumspection  to  their  own  interests. 

Those  who  pay  the  expense,  and  not  those  who  participate  in  the 
emoluments  arising  from  it,  are  the  persons  immediately  interested 


MISCELLANEOUS    LETTEES    AND    ESSAYS.  67 

in  inquiries  of  this  kind.  We  are  a  part  of  that  national  body,  on 
whom  this  annual  expense  of  seventeen  millions  falls  ;  and  we  con- 
sider the  present  opportunity  of  the  French  Revolution  as  a  most 
happy  one  for  lessening  the  enormous  load  under  which  this  nation 
groans.  If  this  be  not  done,  we  shall  then  have  reason  to  conclude, 
that  the  cry  of  intrigue  and  ambition  against  other  courts,  is  no 
more  than  the  common  cant  of  all  courts. 

We  think  it  also  necessary  to  express  our  astonishment  that  a 
government,  desirous  of  being  called  free,  should  prefer  connection 
with  the  most  despotic  and  arbitrary  powers  in  Europe.  We  know 
of  none  more  deserving  this  description  than  those  of  Turkey  and 
Prussia,  and  the  whole  combination  of  German  despots.  Separated 
as  we  happily  are  by  nature,  from  the  tumults  of  the  Continent,  we 
reprobate  all  systems  and  intrigues  which  sacrifice  (and  that  too  at 
a  great  expense)  the  blessings  of  our  natural  situation.  Such  sys- 
tems cannot  have  a  national  origin. 

If  we  are  asked,  what  government  is? — We  hold  it  to  be  nothing 
more  than  a  national  association,  and  we  hold  that  to  be  the 
best  which  secures  to  every  man  his  rights,  and  promotes  the  great- 
est quantity  of  happiness  with  the  least  expense. 

We  live  to  improve,  or  we  live  in  vain  ;  and  therefore  we  admit 
of  no  maxims  of  government  or  policy  on  the  mere  score  of  anti- 
quity, or  other  men's  authority,  the  old  whigs  or  the  new. 

We  will  exercise  the  reason  with  which  we  are  endued,  or  we 
possess  it  unworthily.  As  reason  is  given  at  all  times,  it  is  for  the 
purpose  of  being  used  at  all  times. 

Among  the  blessings  which  the  French  Revolution  has  produced 
to  that  nation,  we  enumerate  the  abolition  of  the  feudal  system  of 
injustice  and  tyranny  on  the  4th  of  August^  1789.  Beneath  the 
feudal  system  all  Europe  has  long  groaned,  and  from  it  England  is 
not  yet  free.  Game  laws,  borough  tenures,  and  tyrannical  mono- 
polies of  numerous  kinds,  still  remain  amongst  us  ;  but  rejoicing  as 
we  sincerely  do,  in  the  freedom  of  others,  till  we  shall  happily  ac- 
complish our  own,  we  intended  to  commemorate  this  prelude  to  the 
universal  extirpation  of  the  feudal  system,  by  meeting  on  the  anni- 
versary of  that  day  (the  4th  of  August)  at  the  Crown  and  Anchor. 
From  this  meeting  we  were  prevented  by  the  interference  of  cer- 
tain unnamed  and  slculking  persons  with  the  master  of  the  Tavern, 
who  informed  us,  that  on  their  representations  he  could  not  receive 
us.     Let  those  who  live  by,  or  countenance  feudal  oppressions, 


68  MISCELLANEOUS   LETTERS   AND   ESSAYS. 

take  the  reproach  of  this  ineffectual  meanness  and  cowardice  to 
themselves.  They  cannot  stifle  the  public  declaration  of  our 
honest,  open,  and  avowed  opinions. 

These  are  our  principles,  and  these  our  sentiments.  They  em- 
brace the  interest  and  happiness  of  the  great  body  of  the  nation  of 
which  we  are  a  part.  As  to  riots  and  tumults,  let  those  answer  for 
them,  who,  by  wilful  misrepresentations,  endeavor  to  excite  and  pro- 
mote them ;  or  who  seek  to  stun  the  sense  of  the  nation,  and  to  lose 
the  great  cause  of  public  good  in  the  outrages  of  a  misinformed  mob. 
We  take  our  ground  on  principles  that  require  no  such  riotous  aid. 
We  have  nothing  to  apprehend  from  the  poor;  for  we  are  pleading 
their  cause.  And  we  fear  not  proud  oppression,  for  we  have  truth 
on  our  side.  We  say,  and  we  repeat  it,  that  the  French  Revolution 
opens  to  the  world  an  opportunity  in  which  all  good  citizens  must 
rejoice — that  of  promoting  the  general  happiness  of  man.  And 
that  it  moreover  offers  to  this  country  in  particular,  an  opportunity 
of  reducing  our  enormous  taxes. 

These  are  our  objects,  and  we  will  pursue  them. 

J.  HORNE  TOOKE, 

Chairman. 


ON   THE 

CONSTRUCTION  OF  IRON  BRIDGES. 


As  bridges,  and  the  method  of  constructing  them,  are  becom- 
ing objects  of  great  importance  throughout  the  United  States,  and 
as  there  are  at  this  time  proposals  for  a  bridge  over  the  Delaware, 
and  also  a  bridge  beginning  to  be  erected  over  the  Schuylkill  at 
Philadelphia,  I  present  the  public  with  some  account  of  the  con- 
struction of  iron  bridges. 

The  following  memoir  on  that  subject,  written  last  winter  at  the 
federal  city,  was  intended  to  be  presented  to  congress.  But  as 
the  session  would  necessarily  be  short,  and  as  several  of  its  mem- 
bers would  be  replaced  by  new  elections  at  the  ensuing  session,  it 
was  judged  better  to  let  it  lie  over.  In  the  mean  time,  on  account 
of  the  bridges  now  in  contemplation,  or  began,  I  give  the  memoir 
the  opportunity  of  appearing  before  the  public,  and  the  persons 
concerned  in  those  works. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 
Bordentown,  JS'ew-Jersey,  June,  1803. 

TO    THE    CONGRESS    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

I  HAVE  deposited  in  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  state,  and 
under  the  care  of  the  patent  office,  two  models  of  iron  bridges  ; 
the  one  in  paste-board,  the  other  cast  in  metal.  As  they  will  show, 
by  inspection,  the  manner  of  constructing  iron  bridges,  I  shall  not 
take  up  the  time  of  congress  with  a  description  of  them. 

My  intention  in  presenting  this  memoir  to  congress,  is  to  put 
the  country  in  possession  of  the  means  and  of  the  right  of  making 
use  of  the  construction  freely ;  as  I  do  not  intend  to  take  any 
patent  right  for  it. 

As  America  abounds  in  rivers  that  interrupt  the  land  communi- 
cation, and  as  by  violence  of  floods,  and  the  breaking  up  of  the 
ice  in  the  spring,  the  bridges  depending  for  support  from  the  bot- 
tom of  the  river,  are  frequently  carried    away,  I  turned   mj 


70  ON    THE    CONSTRUCTION 

attention,  after  the  revolutionary  war  was  over,  to  find  a  method 
of  constructing  an  arch,  that  might,  without  rendering  the  height 
inconvenient  or  the  ascent  diflScult,  extend  at  once  from  shore  to 
shore,  over  rivers  of  three,  four,  or  five  hundred  feet,  and  proba- 
bly more. 

The  principle  I  took  to  begin  with,  and  work  upon,  was  that 
the  small  segment  of  a  large  circle  was  preferable  to  the  great 
segment  of  a  small  circle.  The  appearance  of  such  arches,  and 
the  manner  of  forming  and  putting  the  parts  together,  admit  of 
many  varieties,  but  the  principle  will  be  the  same  in  all.  The 
bridge  architects  that  I  conversed  with  in  England  denied  the 
principle,  but  it  was  generally  supported  by  mathematicians,  and 
experiment  has  now  established  the  fact. 

In  1786,  I  made  three  models,  partly  at  Philadelphia,  but 
mostly  at  Bordentown  in  the  state  of  New-Jersey.  One  model 
was  in  wood,  one  in  cast  iron,  and  one  in  wrought  iron  connected 
with  blocks  of  wood,  representing  cast  iron  blocks,  but  all  on  the 
same  principle,  that  of  the  small  segment  of  a  large  circle. 

I  took  the  last  mentioned  one  with  me  to  France  in  1787,  and 
presented  it  to  the  academy  of  sciences  at  Paris  for  their  opinion 
of  it.  The  academy  appointed  a  committee  of  three  of  their 
own  body — Mons.  Le  Roy,  the  abbe  Bossou,  and  Mens.  Borda. 
The  first  was  an  acquaintance  of  Dr.  Franklin,  and  of  Mr. 
Jefferson,  then  minister  at  Paris.  The  two  others  were  celebrated 
as  mathematicians.  I  presented  it  as  a  model  for  a  bridge  of  a 
single  arch  of  400  feet  span  over  the  river  Schuylkill  at  Philadel- 
phia. The  committee  brought  in  a  report  which  the  academy 
adopted — that  an  arch  on  the  principle  and  construction  of  the 
model,  in  their  opinion,  might  be  extended  400  feet,  the  extent 
proposed. 

In  September  of  the  same  year,  I  sent  the  model  to  Sir  Joseph 
Banks,  president  of  the  Royal  Society  in  England,  and  soon  after 
went  there  myself. 

In  order  to  ascertain  the  truth  of  the  principle  on  a  larger  scale, 
than  could  be  shown  by  a  portable  model  of  five  or  six  feet  in 
length,  I  went  to  the  iron  foundery  of  Messrs.  Walkers,  at 
Rotherham,  county  of  Yorkshire,  in  England,  and  had  a  complete 
rib  of  90  feet  span  and  5  feet  of  height  from  the  cord  line  to  the 
centre  of  the  arch,  manufactured  and  erected.  It  was  a  segment 
of  a  circle  of  410  feet  diameter:  and  until  this  was  done,  no 


OF    IRON   BRIDGES.  71 

experiment  on  a  circle  of  such  an  extensive  diameter  had  ever 
been  made  in  architecture,  or  the  practicabihty  of  it  supposed. 

The  rib  was  erected  between  a  wall  of  a  furnace  belonging  to 
the  iron  works,  and  the  gable  end  of  a  brick  building,  which  serv 
ed  as  hutments.  The  weight  of  iron  in  the  rib,  was  three  tons, 
and  we  loaded  it  with  double  its  weight  in  pig  iron.  I  wrote  to 
Mr.  Jefferson,  who  was  then  at  Paris,  an  account  of  this  experi- 
ment ;  and  also  Sir  Joseph  Banks  in  London,  who  in  his  answer 
to  me  says — "  I  look  for  many  other  bold  improvements  from  your 
countrymen,  the  Americans,  who  think  with  vigor,  and  are  not 
fettered  with  the  trammels  of  science  before  they  are  capable  of 
exerting  their  mental  faculties  to  advantage."  On  the  success  of 
this  experiment,  I  entered  into  an  agreement  with  the  iron- 
founders  at  Rotherham  to  cast  and  manufacture  a  complete  bridge, 
to  be  composed  of  five  ribs  of  210  feet  span,  and  5  feet  of  height 
from  the  cord  line,  being  a  segment  of  a  circle  610  feet  diameter, 
and  send  it  to  London,  to  be  erected  as  a  specimen  for  establish- 
ing a  manufactory  of  iron  bridges,  to  be  sent  to  any  part  of  the 
world. 

The  bridge  was  erected  at  the  village  of  Paddington,  near  Lon- 
don, but  being  in  a  plain  field,  where  no  advantage  could  be  taken 
of  hutments  without  the  expense  of  building  them,  as  in  the 
former  case,  it  served  only  as  a  specimen  of  the  practicability  of 
a  manufactory  of  iron  bridges.  It  was  brought  by  sea,  packed  in 
the  hold  of  a  vessel,  from  the  place  where  it  was  made  ;  and 
after  standing  a  year  was  taken  down,  without  injury  to  any  of  its 
parts,  and  might  be  erected  any  where  else. 

At  this  time  my  bridge  operations  became  suspended.  Mr. 
Edmund  Burke  published  his  attack  on  the  French  revolution  and 
the  system  of  representative  government,  and  in  defence  of  gov- 
ernment by  hereditary  succession,  a  thing  which  is  in  its  nature  an 
absurdity,  because  it  is  impossible  to  make  wisdom  hereditary  ; 
and  therefore,  so  far  as  wisdom  is  necessary  in  a  government,  it 
must  be  looked  for  where  it  can  be  found.  Sometimes  in  one 
family*,  sometimes  in  another.  History  informs  us  that  the  son 
of  Solomon  was  a  fool.  He  lost  ten  tribes  out  of  twelve.* 
There  are  those  in  later  times  who  lost  thirteen. 

The  publication  of  this  work  by  Mr.  Burke,  absurd  in  its  prin- 
ciples and  outrageous  in  its  manner,  drew  me,  as  I  have  said,  from 

*  2  Chron.  chap.  10. 


f^  ON    THE    CONSTRUCTION 

my  bridge  operations,  and  my  time  became  employed  in  defend- 
ing a  system  then  established  and  operating  in  America,  and  which 
I  wished  to  see  peaceably  adopted  in  Europe — I  therefore  ceased 
my  work  on  the  bridge  to  employ  myself  on  the  more  necessary 
work,  Rights  of  Man,  in  answer  to  Mr.  Burke. 

In  1792,  a  convention  was  elected  in  France  for  the  express 
purpose  of  forming  a  constitution  on  the  authority  of  the  people, 
as  had  been  done  in  America,  of  which  convention  I  was  elected 
a  member.  I  was  at  this  time  in  England,  and  knew  nothing  of 
my  being  elected  till  the  arrival  of  the  person  who  was  sent 
officially  to  inform  me  of  it. 

During  my  residence  in  France,  which  was  from  1792  to  1802, 
an  iron  bridge  of  236  feet  span,  and  34  of  height  from  the  cord 
line,  was  erected  over  the  river  near  Wear  at  the  town  of  Sunder- 
land, in  the  county  of  Durham  in  England.  It  was  done  chiefly 
at  the  expense  of  the  two  members  of  parliament  for  that  county, 
Milbanke  and  Burden. 

It  happened  that  a  very  intimate  friend  of  mine,  Sir  Robert 
Smith  (who  was  also  an  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Monroe,  the  Ameri- 
can minister,  and  since  of  Mr.  Livingston)  was  then  at  Paris. 
He  had  been  a  colleague  in  parliament,  with  Milbanke,  and  sup- 
posing that  the  persons  who  constructed  the  iron  bridge  at 
Sunderland,  had  made  free  with  my  model,  which  was  at  the  iron 
works  where  the  Sunderland  bridge  was  cast,  he  wrote  to  Mil- 
banke on  the  subject,  and  the  following  is  that  gentleman's  answer. 

"  With  respect  to  the  iron  bridge  over  the  river  Wear  at  Sun- 
derland, it  certainly  is  a  work  well  deserving  admiration,  both  for 
its  structure  and  utility,  and  I  have  good  grounds  for  saying  that 
the  first  idea  was  suggested  by  Mr.  Paine's  bridge  exhibited  at 
Paddington.  What  difference  there  may  be  in  some  part  of  the 
structure,  or  in  the  proportion  of  wrought  and  cast  iron,  I  cannot 
pretend  to  say,  Burdon  having  undertaken  to  build  the  bridge,  in 
consequence  of  his  having  taken  upon  himself  whatever  the  ex- 
pense might  be  beyond  between  three  and  four  thousand  pounds 
sterling,  subscribed  by  myself  and  some  other  gentlemen.  But 
whatever  the  mechanism  might  be,  it  did  not  supersede  the  neces- 
sity of  a  centre.*     (The  writer  has  here  confounded  a  centre 

*  It  13  the  technical  term,  meaning  the  boards  and  numbers  which  form  the 
arch  upon  which  the  permanent  materials  are  laid ;  when  a  bridge  is  finished 
the  workmen  say  they  are  ready  to  strike  centre,  tliat  is  to  take  do-wTi  the 
scaffolding. 


OF    IRON    BRIDGES.  73 

with  a  scaffolding)  which  centre  (continues  the  writer)  was 
esteemed  a  very  ingenious  piece  of  workmanship,  and  taken  from 
a  plan  sketched  out  by  Mr.  Nash,  an  architect  of  great  merit,  who 
had  been  consulted  in  the  outset  of  the  business,  when  a  bridge 
of  stone  was  in  contemplation. 

"  With  respect  therefore  to  any  gratuity  to  Mr.  Paine,  though 
ever  so  desirous  of  rewarding  the  labors  of  an  ingenious  man,  I 
do  not  feel,  how,  under  the  circumstances  already  described,  I 
have  it  in  my  power,  having  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  bridge  after 
Jie  payment  of  my  subscription,  Mr.  Burdon  then  becoming 
accountable  for  the  whole.  But  if  you  can  point  out  any  mode, 
according  to  which  it  would  be  in  my  power  to  be  instrumental  in 
procuring  him  any  compensation  for  the  advantages  the  public 
may  have  derived  from  his  ingenious  model,  from  which  certainly 
the  outline  of  the  bridge  at  Sunderland  was  taken,  be  assured  it 
will  afford  me  very  great  satisfaction.* 

RA.  MILBANKE." 

The  year  before  I  left  France,  the  government  of  that  country 
had  it  in  contemplation  to  erect  an  iron  bridge  over  the  river  Seine, 
at  Paris.  As  all  edifices  of  public  construction  came  under  the 
cognizance  of  the  minister  of  the  interior, — (and  as  their  plan 
was  to  erect  a  bridge  of  five  iron  arches  of  one  hundred  feet  span 
each,  instead  of  passing  the  river  with  a  single  arch,  and  which  was 
going  backward  in  practice,  instead  of  forward,  as  there  was 
already  an  iron  arch  of  230  feet  in  existence)  I  wrote  the  minister 
of  the  interior,  the  citizen  Chaptal,  a  memoir  on  the  construction 
of  iron  bridges.     The  following  is  his  answer. 

Th&.minister  of  the  interior  to  the  citizen  Thomas  Paine, 

I  have  received,  citizen,  the  observations  that  you  have  been  so 
good  as  to  address  to  me  upon  the  construction  of  iron  bridges. 
They  will  be  of  the  greatest  utility  to  us,  when  the  new  kind  of 
construction  goes  to  be  executed  for  the  first  time.  With  pleasure, 
I  assure  you,  citizen,  that  you  have  rights  of  more  than  one  kind 
to  the  thankfulness  of  nations,  and  I  give  you,  cordially,  the  par- 
ticular expression  of  my  esteem. | 

CHAPTAL. 

*  The  original  is  in  my  possession. 
t  The  original,  in  French,  is  in  my  possession. 
\V 


74  ON    THE    CONSTRUCTION 

A  short  time  before  I  left  France,  a  person  came  to  me  from 
London  with  plans  and  drawings  for  an  iron  bridge  of  one  arch 
over  the  river  Thames  at  London,  of  60  j  feet  span,  and  sixty 
feet  of  height  from  the  cord  line.  The  subject  was  then  before 
a  committee  of  the  house  of  commons,  but  I  know  not  the  pro- 
ceedings thereon. 

As  this  new  construction  of  an  ai  ch  for  bridges,  and  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  it  is  founded,  originated  in  America,  as  the 
documents  I  have  produced  sufficiently  prove,  and  is  becoming 
an  object  of  importance  to  the  world,  and  to  no  part  of  it  more 
than  to  our  own  country,  on  account  of  its  numerous  rivers,  and 
as  no  experiment  has  been  made  in  America  to  bring  it  into 
practice,  further  than  on  the  model  I  have  executed  myself,  and 
at  my  own  expense,  I  beg  leave  to  submit  a  proposal  to  congress 
on  the  subject,  which  is, 

To  erect  an  experiment  rib  of  about  400  feet  span,  to  be  the 
segment  of  a  circle  of  at  least  1000  feet  diameter,  and  to  let  it 
remain  exposed  to  public  view,  that  the  method  of  constructing 
such  arches  may  be  generally  known. 

It  is  an  advantage  peculiar  to  the  construction  of  iron  bridges, 
that  the  success  of  an  arch  of  a  given  extent  and  height,  can  be 
ascertained  without  being  at  the  expense  of  building  the  bridge ; 
which  is,  by  the  method  I  propose,  that  of  erecting  an  experiment 
rib  on  the  ground  where  advantage  can  be  taken  of  two  hills  for 
hutments. 

I  began  in  this  manner  with  the  rib  of  90  feet  span,  and  5  feet 
of  height,  being  a  segment  of  a  circle  of  410  feet  diameter. 
The  undertakers  of  the  Sunderland  bridge  began  in  the  same 
manner.  They  contracted  with  the  iron-founder  for  a  sipgle  rib, 
and  finding  it  to  answer,  had  five  more  manufactured  like  it,  and 
erected  into  a  bridge  consisting  of  six  ribs,  the  experiment  rib 
being  one.  But  the  Sunderland  bridge  does  not  carry  the  princi- 
ple much  further  into  practice  than  had  been  done  by  the  rib  of  90 
feet  span  and  5  feet  in  height,  being,  as  before  said,  a  segment  of 
a  circle  of  410  feet  diameter  ;  the  Sunderland  bridge  being  206 
feet  span  and  34  feet  of  height,  gives  the  diameter  of  the  circle  of 
which  it  is  a  segment,  to  be  444  feet,  within  a  few  inches,  Avhich  is 
but  a  larger  segment  of  a  circle  of  30  feet  more  diameter. 

The  construction  of  those  bridges  does  not  come  within  the 
hne  of  any  established  practice  of  business.     The  stone  architect 


USEFUL    AND    ENTERTAINING    HINTS.  75 

can  derive  but  little  from  the  theory  or  practice  of  his  art  that 
enters  into  the  construction  of  an  iron  bridge  ;  and  the  iron- 
founder,  though  he  may  be  expert  in  moulding  and  casting  the 
parts,  when  the  models  are  given  him,  would  be  at  a  loss  to  pro- 
portion them,  unless  he  was  acquainted  with  all  the  lines  and 
properties  belonging  to  a  circle. 

,If  it  should  appear  to  congress  that  the  construction  of  iron 
bridges  will  be  of  utility  to  the  country,  and  they  should  direct 
hat  an  experiment  rib  be  made  for  that  purpose,  I  will  furnish  the 
proportions  for  the  several  parts  of  the  work,  and  give  my  atten- 
dance to  superintend  the  erection  of  it. 

But,  in  any  case,  I  have  to  request,  that  this  memoir  may  be  put 
on  the  journals  of  congress,  as  an  evidence  hereafter,  that  this 
new  method  of  constructing  bridges  originated  in  America. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 
Federal  city,  Jan.  3,  1803. 

N.  B.  The  two  models  mentioned  in  the  memoir,  will,  I  ex 
pect,  arrive  at  Philadelphia,  by  the  next  packet,  from  the  federal 
city,  and  will  remain  for  some  time  in  Mr.  Peale's  museum. 


USEFUL  A^D  EI«fTERTAI]^IN^G  HINTS.* 


"The  real  value  of  a  thing, 

Is  as  much  money  as  'twill  bring." 


In  the  possession  of  the  Philadelphia  Library  Company  is  a 
cabinet  of  fossils, |  with  several  specimens  of  earth,  clay,  sand, 
&c.  with  some  account  of  each,  and  where  brought  from. 

I  have  always  considered  these  kind  of  researches  as  produc- 
tive of  many  advantages,  and  in  a  new  country  they  are  particu- 
larly so.     As  subjects  for  speculation,  they  afford  entertainment 

*  Published  in  the  Pennsylvania  magazme,  Feb.  1775. 

t  In  the  catalogue  it  is  called  a  collection  of  American  fossils,  &c.  but  a 
considerable  part  of  them  are  foreign  ones.  I  presume  that  the  collector,  in 
order  to  judge  the  better  of  such  as  he  might  discover  here,  made  first  a  col- 
lection of  such  foreign  ones  whose  value  were  known,  in  order  to  compare 
by :  as  his  design  seems  rather  bent  towards  discovering  the  treasures  of 
America  than  merely  to  make  a  collection. 


76  USEFUL    AND    ENTERTAINING    HINTS. 

to  the  curious  ;  but  as  objects  of  utility  they  merit  a  closer  atten 
tion.  The  same  materials  which  delight  the  fossilist,  enrich  the 
manufacturer  and  the  merchant.  While  the  one  is  scientifically 
examining  their  structure  and  composition,  the  others,  by  industry 
and  commerce,  are  transmuting  them  to  gold.  Possessed  of  the 
power  of  pleasing,  they  gratify  on  both  sides  ;  the  one  con- 
templates their  natural  beauties  in  the  cabinet,  the  others,  their 
re-created  one  in  the  coffer. 

'Tis  by  the  researches  of  the  virtuoso  that  the  hidden  parts  of 
the  earth  are  brought  to  light,  and  from  his  discoveries  of  its 
qualities,  the  potter,  the  glassmaker,  and  numerous  other  artists, 
are  enabled  to  furnish  us  with  their  productions.  Artists,  con- 
sidered merely  as  such,  would  have  made  but  a  slender  progress, 
had  they  not  been  led  on  by  the  enterprising  spirit  of  the  curious. 
I  am  unwilling  to  dismiss  this  remark  without  entering  my  protest 
against  that  unkind,  ungrateful  and  impolitic  custom  of  ridiculing 
unsuccessful  experiments  ;  and  informing  those  unwise  or  over- 
wise  pasquinaders,  that  half  the  felicities  they  enjoy,  sprung  origi- 
nally from  generous  curiosity. 

Were  a  man  to  propose,  or  set  out  to  bore  his  lands,  as  a  car- 
penter does  a  board,  he  might  probably  bring  on  himself  a  shower 
of  witticisms  ;  and  though  he  could  not  be  jested  at  for  building 
castles  in  the  air,  yet  many  magnanimous  laughs  might  break 
forth  at  his  expense,  and  vociferously  predict  the  explosion  of  a 
mine  in  his  subterraneous  pursuits.  I  am  led  to  this  reflection 
by  the  present  domestic  state  of  America,  because  it  will  un- 
avoidably happen,  that  before  we  can  arrive  at  that  perfection  of 
things  which  other  nations  have  acquired,  many  hopes  will  fail 
many  whimsical  attempts  will  become  fortunate,  and  many 
reasonable  ones  end  in  air  and  expense.  The  degree  of  im- 
provement which  America  has  already  arrived  at,  is  unparallelec 
and  astonishing,  but  'tis  miniature  to  what  she  will  one  day  boast 
of,  if  heaven  continue  her  happiness.  We  have  nearly  one  whole 
region  yet  unexplored  :  I  mean  the  internal  region  of  the  earth. 
By  industry  and  tillage  we  have  acquired  a  considerable  know- 
ledge of  what  America  will  produce,  but  very  little  of  what  it  con- 
tains. The  bowels  of  the  earth  have  been  only  slightly  inquired 
into  :  we  seem  to  content  ourselves  with  such  parts  of  it  as  arc 
absolutely  necessary,  and  cannot  well  be  imported,  as  brick, 
stone,  &c.,  but  have  gone  very  Uttle  further,  except  in  the  article 


USEFUL    AND    ENTERTAINING    HINTS.  77 

of  iron.  The  glass  and  the  pottery  manufactures  are  yet  very 
imperfect,  and  will  continue  so,  'till  some  curious  researcher  finds 
out  the  proper  material. 

Copper,  lead,  and  tin  articles  valuable  both  in  their  simple 
state,  and  as  being  the  component  parts  of  other  metals  {viz. 
brass  and  pewter)  are  at  present  but  little  known  throughout  the 
continent  in  their  mineral  form  :  yet  I  doubt  not,  but  very  valu- 
able mines  of  them,  are  daily  travelled  over  in  the  western  parts 
of  America.  Perhaps  a  few  feet  of  surface  conceal  a  treasure 
sufficient  to  enrich  a  kingdom. 

The  value  of  the  interior  part  of  the  earth,  like  ourselves,  can- 
not be  judged  certainly  of  by  the  surface  ;  neither  do  the  cor- 
responding strata  lie  with  the  unvariable  order  of  the  colors  of 
the  rainbow,  and  if  they  ever  did,  which  I  do  not  believe,  age  and 
misfortune  have  now  broken  in  upon  their  union  ;  earthquakes, 
deluges,  and  volcanoes  have  so  disunited  and  re-united  them,  that 
in  their  present  state  they  appear  like  a  world  in  ruins — yet  the 
ruins  are  beautiful ;  the  caverns,  museums  of  antiquity. 

Though  nature  is  gay,  polite,  and  generous  abroad,  she  is  sul- 
len, rude,  and  niggardly  at  home  :  return  the  visit,  and  she  admits 
you  with  all  the  suspicion  of  a  miser,  and  all  the  reluctance  of  an 
antiquated  beauty  retired  to  replenish  her  charms.  Bred  up  in 
antediluvian  notions,  she  has  not  yet  acquired  the  European  taste 
of  receiving  visitants  in  her  dressing-room  :  she  locks  and  bolts 
up  her  private  recesses  with  extraordinary  care,  as  if  not  only  re- 
solved to  preserve  her  hoards,  but  to  conceal  her  age,  and  hide 
the  remains  of  a  face  that  was  young  and  lovely  in  the  days  of 
Adam.  He  that  would  view  nature  in  her  undress,  and  partake 
of  her  internal  treasures,  must  proceed  with  the  resolution  of  a 
robber,  if  not  a  ravisher.  She  gives  no  invitation  to  follow  her  to 
the  cavern — the  external  earth  makes  no  proclamation  of  the  in- 
terior stores,  but  leaves  to  chance  and  industry,  the  discovery  of 
the  whole.  In  such  gifts  as  nature  can  annually  re-create,  she  is 
noble  and  profuse,  and  entertains  the  whole  world  with  the  interest 
of  her  fortunes  ;  but  watches  over  the  capital  with  the  care  of  a 
miser.  Her  gold  and  jewels  lie  concealed  in  the  earth,  in  caves 
of  utter  darkness ;  and  hoards  of  wealth,  heaps  upon  heaps, 
mould  in  the  chests,  like  the  riches  of  a  necromancer's  cell.  It 
must  be  very  pleasant  to  an  adventurous  speculist  to  make  ex- 
cursions into  these  Gothic  regions ;  and  in  his  travels  he  maj 


78  USEFUL    AND    ENTERTAINING    HINTS. 

possibly  come  to  a  cabinet  locked  up  in  some  rocky  vault,  whose 
treasures  shall  reward  his  toil,  and  enable  him  to  shine  on  his 
return,  as  splendidly  as  nature  herself. 

By  a  small  degree  of  attention  to  the  order  and  origin  of  things, 
we  shall  perceive,  that  though  the  surface  of  the  earth  produces 
us  the  necessaries  of  life,  yet  'tis  from  the  mine  we  extract  the 
conveniences  thereof.  Our  houses  would  diminish  to  wigwams, 
furnished  in  the  Indian  style,  and  ourselves  resemble  the  building, 
were  it  not  for  the  ores  of  the  earth.  Agriculture  and  manufac- 
tures would  wither  away  for  want  of  tools  and  implements,  and 
commerce  stand  still  for  want  of  materials.  The  beasts  of  the 
field  would  elude  our  power,  and  the  birds  of  the  air  get  beyond 
our  reach.  Our  dominion  would  shrink  to  a  narrow  circle  ;  and 
our  mind  itself,  partaking  of  the  change,  would  contract  its  pros- 
pects, and  lessen  into  almost  animal  instinct.  Take  away  but 
the  single  article  of  iron,  and  half  the  felicities  of  life  fall  with  it. 
Little  as  we  may  prize  this  common  ore,  the  loss  of  it  would  cut 
deeper  than  the  use  of  it :  and  by  the  way  of  laughing  off  misfor- 
tunes 'tis  easy  to  prove,  by  this  method  of  investigation,  that  an 
iron  age  is  better  than  a  golden  one. 

Since  so  great  a  portion  of  our  enjoyments  is  drawn  from  the 
mine,  it  is  certainly  an  evidence  of  our  prudence  to  inquire  and 
know  what  our  possessions  are.  Every  man's  landed  property 
extends  to  the  surtace  ot  the  earth.  Why  then  should  he  sit 
down  contented  with  a  part,  and  practise  upon  his  estate  those 
fashionable  follies  in  life,  which  prefer  the  superfice  to  the  solid  ? 
Curiosity  alone,  should  the  thought  occur  conveniently,  would 
move  an  active  mind  to  examine  (though  not  at  the  bottom)  at 
least  to  a  considerable  depth. 

The  propriety  and  reasonableness  of  these  internal  inquiries 
are  continually  pointed  out  to  us  by  numberless  occurrences. 
Accident  is  almost  every  day  turning  out  some  new  secret  from 
the  earth.  How  often  has  the  ploughshare  or  the  spade  broken 
open  a  treasure,  which  for  ages.,  perhaps  for  ever,  had  lain  but  just 
beneath  the  surface  1  And  though  every  estate  have  not  mines  of 
gold  or  silver,  yet  they  may  contain  some  strata  of  valuable  earth, 
proper  for  manufactures  ;  and  if  they  have  not  those,  there  is  a 
great  probability  of  their  having  chalk,  marl,  or  some  rich  soil 
proper  for  manure,  which  only  requires  to  be  removed  to  the 
surface. 


USEFUL    AND    ENTERTAINING    HINTS.  79 

I  have  been  informed  of  some  land  in  England  being  raised  to 
four  times  its  former  value  by  the  discovery  of  a  chalk  or  marl 
pit,  in  digging  a  hole  to  fix  a  post  in  ;  and  in  embanking  a  meadow 
in  the  Jerseys,  the  laborers  threw  out  with  the  soil,  a  fine  blue 
powdered  earth,  resembling  indigo,  which,  when  mixed  with  oil, 
was  used  for  paint. — I  imagine  this  vein  is  now  exhausted. 

Many  valuable  ores,  clays,  &c.  appear  in  such  rude  forms  in 
their  natural  state,  as  not  even  to  excite  curiosity,  much  less 
attention.  A  true  knowledge  of  their  different  value  can  only  be 
obtained  by  experiment :  as  soil  proper  for  manure,  they  may  be 
judged  of  by  the  planter  ;  but  as  matter,  they  come  under  tjie 
inquiry  of  the  philosopher — this  leads  me  to  reflect  with  inexpressi- 
ble pleasure,  on  the  numberless  benefits  arising  to  a  community, 
by  the  institution  of  societies  for  promoting  useful  knowledge. 

The  American  Philosophical  Society,  like  the  Royal  Society  in 
England,  by  having  public  spirit  for  its  support,  and  public  good 
for  its  object,  is  a  treasure  we  ought  to  glory  m.  Here  the  defec- 
tive knowledge  of  the  individual  is  supplied  by  the  common  stock. 
Societies,  without  endangering  private  fortunes,  are  enabled  to 
proceed  in  their  inquiries  by  analysis  and  experiment :  but  indi- 
viduals are  seldom  furnished  with  conveniencies  for  so  doing,  and 
generally  rest  their  opinion  on  reasonable  conjecture. 

I  presume  that  were  samples  of  different  soils  from  different 
parts  of  America,  presented  to  the  society  for  their  inspection  and 
examination,  it  would  greatly  facilitate  our  knowledge  of  the 
internal  earth,  and  give  a  new  spring  both  to  agriculture  and 
manufactures. 

These  hints  are  not  intended  to  lament  any  loss  of  time,  or 
remissness  in  the  pursuit  of  useful  knowledge,  but  to  furnish  mat- 
ter for  future  studies  ;  that  while  we  glory  in  what  we  are,  we 
may  not  neglect  what  we  are  to  be. 

Of  the  present  state  we  may  justly  say,  that  no  nation  under 
heaven  ever  struck  out  in  so  short  a  time,  and  with  so  much  spirit 
and  reputation,  into  the  labyrinth  of  art  and  science  ;  and  that,  not 
in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  only,  but  in  the  happy  advantages 
flowing  from  it.  The  world  does  not  at  this  day  exhibit  a  parallel, 
neithc-  can  history  produce  its  equal. 

ATLANTICUS. 


Oy  THE  UTILITY  OF  MAGAZINES.* 


In  a  country  whose  reigning  character  is  the  love  of  science,  it 
IS  somewhat  strange  that  the  channels  of  communication  should 
continue  so  narrow  and  limited.  The  weekly  papers  are  at 
present  the  only  vehicles  of  public  information.  Convenience 
and  necessity  prove  that  the  opportunities  of  acquiring  and  com- 
municating knowledge,  ought  always  to  enlarge  with  the  circle  of 
population.  America  has  now  outgrown  the  state  of  infancy  : 
her  strength  and  commerce  make  large  advances  to  manhood,  and 
science  in  all  its  branches  has  not  only  blossomed,  but  even  ripen- 
ed on  the  soil.  The  cottages  as  it  were  of  yesterday  have  grown 
to  villages,  and  villages  to  cities  ;  and  while  proud  antiquity,  like 
a  skeleton  in  rags,  parades  the  streets  of  other  nations,  their 
genius,  as  if  sickened  and  disgusted  with  the  phantom,  comes 
hither  for  recovery. 

The  present  enlarged  and  improved  state  of  things  gives  every 
encouragement  which  the  editor  of  a  new  magazine  can  reason- 
ably hope  for.  The  failure  of  former  ones  cannot  be  drawn  as  a 
parallel  now.  Change  of  times  adds  propriety  to  new  measures. 
In  the  early  days  of  colonization,  when  a  whisper  was  almost  suf- 
ficient to  have  negociated  all  our  internal  concerns,  the  publishing 
even  of  a  newspaper  would  have  been  premature.  Those  times 
are  past ;  and  population  has  established  both  their  use  and  their 
credit.  But  their  plan  being  almost  wholly  devoted  to  news  and 
commerce,  affords  but  a  scanty  residence  to  the  muses.  Their 
path  lies  wide  of  the  field  of  science,  and  has  lefl  a  rich  and 
unexplored  region  for  new  adventurers. 

It  has  always  been  the  opinion  of  the  learned  and  curious,  that 
a  magazine  when  properly  conducted,  is  the  nursery  of  genius  ; 

*  First  published  in  tlie  Pennsylvania  Magazine,  Jan.  1773. 


on    THE    UTILITY    OF    MAGAZINES.  81 

and  hy  constantly  accumulating  new  matter,  becomes  a  kina  of 
market  for  wit  and  utility.  The  opportunities  which  it  afforos  to 
men  of  abilities  to  communicate  their  studies,  kindle  up  a  spirit  ot 
invention  and  emulation.  An  unexercised  genius  soon  contracts 
a  kind  of  mossiness,  which  not  only  checks  its  growth,  but  abates 
its  natural  vigor.  Like  an  untenanted  house  it  falls  into  decay, 
and  frequently  ruins  the  possessor. 

The  British  magazines  at  their  commencement,  were  the  re- 
positories of  ingenuity :  they  are  now  the  retailers  of  tale  and 
nonsense.  From  elegance  they  sunk  to  simplicity,  from  sim- 
plicity to  folly,  and  from  folly  to  voluptuousness.  The  Gentle- 
man's, the  London,  and  the  Universal  Magazines,  bear  yet  some 
marks  of  their  originality;  but  the  Town  and  Country,  the 
Covent-Garden,  and  Westminster  are  no  better  than  incentives  to 
profligacy  and  dissipation.  They  have  added  to  the  dissolution 
of  manners,  and  supported  Venus  against  the  Muses. 

America  yet  inherits  a  large  portion  of  her  first-imported  virtue. 
Degeneracy  is  here  almost  a  useless  word.  Those  who  are  con- 
versant with  Europe,  would  be  tempted  to  believe  that  even  the 
air  of  the  Atlantic  disagrees  with  the  constitution  of  foreign 
vices  ;  if  they  survive  the  voyage,  they  either  expire  on  their 
arrival,  or  linger  away  in  an  incurable  consumption.  There  is  a 
happy  something  in  the  climate  of  America,  which  disarms  them 
of  all  their  power  both  of  infection  and  attraction. 

But  while  we  give  no  encouragement  to  the  importation  of 
foreign  vices,  we  ought  to  be  equally  carefully  not  to  create  any. 
A  vice  begotten  might  be  worse  than  a  vice  imported. .  The  lat- 
'.er,  depending  on  favor,  would  be  a  sycophant ;  the  other,  by 
pride  of  birth  would  be  a  tyrant :  to  the  one  we  should  be  dupes, 
to  the  other  slaves. 

There  is  nothing  which  obtains  so  general  an  influence  over  the 
manners  and  morals  of  a  people  as  the  press  ;  from  that,  as  from 
a  fountain,  the  streams  of  vice  or  virtue  are  poured  forth  over  a 
country  :  and  of  all  publications,  none  are  more  calculated  to 
improve  or  infect  than  a  periodical  one.  All  others  have  their  rise 
and  their  exit ;  but  this  renews  the  pursuit.  If  it  has  an  evil  ten- 
dency, it  debauches  by  the  power  of  repetition  ;  if  a  good  one,  it 
obtains  favor  by  the  gracefulness  of  soliciting  it.  Like  a  lover, 
it  courts  its  mistress  with  unabated  ardor,  nor  gives  up  the  pursuit 
without  a  conquest.  jj 


82  ON    THE    UTILITY    OF   MAGAZINES. 

The  two  capital  supports  of  a  magazine  are  utility  and  enter- 
tainment: the  first  is  a  boundless  path,  the  other  an  endless 
spring.  To  suppose  that  arts  and  sciences  are  exhausted  sub- 
jects, is  doing  them  a  kind  of  dishonor.  The  divine  mechanism 
of  creation  reproves  such  folly,  and  shows  us  by  comparison,  tho 
imperfection  of  our  most  refined  inventions.  I  cannot  believe 
that  this  species  of  vanity  is  peculiar  to  the  present  age  only.  I 
have  no  doubt  but  that  it  existed  before  the  flood,  and  even  in  the 
wildest  ages  of  antiquity.  'Tis  folly  we  have  inherited,  not 
created ;  and  the  discoveries  which  every  day  produce,  have 
greatly  contributed  to  dispossess  us  of  it.  Improvement  and  the 
world  will  expire  together  :  and  till  that  period  arrives,  w6  may 
plunder  the  mine,  but  can  never  exhaust  it  1  That  "  we  have 
found  out  every  thingy'^  has  been  the  motto  of  every  age.  Let 
our  ideas  travel  a  little  into  antiquity,  and  we  shall  find  larger  por- 
tions of  it  than  now  :  and  so  unwilling  were  our  ancestors  to  de- 
scend from  tliis  mountain  of  perfection,  that  when  any  new  dis- 
covery exceeded  the  common  standard,  the  discoverer  was 
believed  to  be  in  alliance  with  the  devil.  It  was  not  the  ignorance 
of  the  age  only,  but  the  vanity  of  it,  which  rendered  it  dangerous 
to  be  ingenious.  The  man  who  first  planned  and  erected  a 
tenable  hut,  with  a  hole  for  the  smoke  to  pass,  and  the  light  to 
enter,  was  perhaps  called  an  able  architect,  but  he  who  first  im- 
proved it  with  a  chimney,  could  be  no  less  than  a  prodigy  ;  yet 
had  the  same  man  been  so  unfortunate  as  to  have  embellished  it 
with  glass  windows,  he  might  probably  have  been  burnt  for  a 
magician..  Our  fancies  would  be  highly  diverted  could  we  look 
back,  and  behold  a  circle  of  original  Indians  haranguing  on  the 
subhme  perfection  of  the  age  :  yet  'tis  not  impossible  but  future 
times  may  exceed  us  almost  as  much  as  we  have  exceeded  them. 

I  would  wish  to  extirpate  the  least  remains  of  this  impoUtic 
vanity.  It  has  a  direct  tendency  to  unbrace  the  nerves  of  inven- 
tion, and  is  peculiarly  hurtful  to  young  colonies.  A  magazine  can 
never  want  matter  in  America  if  the  inhabitants  will  do  justice  to 
their  own  abilities.  Agriculture  and  manufactures  owe  much  of 
their  improvement  in  England,  to  hints  first  thro^vn  out  in  some  of 
their  magazines.  Gentlemen  whose  abilities  enabled  them  to 
make  experiments,  frequently  chose  that  method  of  communica- 
tion, on  account  of  its  convenience.  And  why  should  not  the 
same  spirit  operate  in  America  ]    I  have  no  doubt  of  seeing,  in  a 


OI»    THE    UTILITT    OF    MAGAZINES.  83 

little  time,  an  American  magazine  full  of  more  useful  matter 
than  I  ever  saw  an  English  one  :  because  we  are  not  exceeded  in 
abilities,  have  a  more  extensive  field  for  inquiry,  and,  whatever 
may  be  our  political  state,  our  happiness  ivill  ahcays  depend  upon 
ourselves. 

Something  useful  will  always  arise  from  exercising  the  inven- 
tion, though  perhaps,  like  the  witch  of  Endor,  we  shall  raise  up  a 
being  we  did  not  expect.  We  owe  many  of  our  noblest  dis- 
coveries more  to  accident  than  wisdom.  In  quest  of  a  pebble  we 
have  found  a  diamond,  and  returned  enriched  with  the  treasure. 
Such  happy  accidents  give  additional  encouragement  to  the  mak- 
ing experiments  ;  and  the  convenience  which  a  magazine  affords, 
of  collecting  and  conveying  them  to  the  public,  enhances  their 
utility.  Where  this  opportunity  is  wanting,  many  little  inventions, 
the  forerunners  of  improvement,  are  suffered  to  expire  on  the  spot 
that  produced  them  ;  and,  as  an  elegant  writer  beautifully  ex- 
presses on  another  occasion, 

"  They  waste  their  sweetness  on  the  desert  air." 

In  matters  of  humor  and  entertainment  there  can  be  no  reason 
to  apprehend  a  deficiency.  Wit  is  naturally  a  volunteer,  delights 
in  action,  and  under  proper  discipline  is  capable  of  great  execu- 
tion. •  'Tis  a  perfect  master  in  the  art  of  bush-fighting  ;  and 
though  it  attacks  with  more  snbtilty  than  science,  has  often  de- 
feated a  whole  regiment  of  heavy  artillery. — Though  I  have  rather 
exceeded  the  line  of  gravity  in  this  description  of  wit,  I  am 
unwilling  to  dismiss  it  without  being  a  little  more  serious. — 'Tis  a 
qualification  which,  like  the  passions,  has  a  natural  wildness  that 
requires  governing.  Left  to  itself,  it  soon  overflows  its  banks, 
mixes  with  common  filth,  and  brings  disrepute  on  the  fountain. 
We  have  many  valuable  springs  of  it  in  America,  which  at  present 
run  purer  streams,  than  the  generality  of  it  m  other  countries. 
In  France  and  Italy,  'tis  froth  highly  fomented  :  in  England  it  has 
much  of  the  same  spirit,  but  rather  a  browner  complexion. 
European  wit  is  one  of  the  worst  articles  we  can  import.  It  has 
an  intoxicating  power  with  it,  which  debauches  the  very  vitals  of 
chastity,  and  gives  a  false  coloring  to  every  thing  it  censures  or 
defends.  We  soon  grow  fatigued  with  the  excess,  and  withdraw 
like  gluttons  sickened  with  intemperance.  On  the  contrary,  how 
happily  are  the  sallies  of  innocent  humor  calculated  to  amuse  and 


84  ON   THE    UTILITY    OF   MAGAZINES. 

sweeten  the  vacancy  of  business  !  We  enjoy  the  harmless  luxury 
without  surfeiting,  and  strengthen  the  spirits  by  relaxing  them. 

The  press  has  not  only  a  great  influence  over  our  manners  and 
morals,  but  contributes  largely  to  our  pleasures  ;  and  a  magazine 
when  properly  enriched,  is  very  conveniently  calculated  for  this 
purpose.  Volumnious  works  weary  the  patience,  but  here  we  are 
invited  by  conciseness  and  variety.  As  I  have  formerly  received 
much  pleasure  from  perusing  these  kind  of  publications,  I  wish 
the  present  success  ;  and  have  no  doubt  of  seeing  a  proper 
diversity  blended  so  agreeably  together,  as  to  furnish  out  an  olio 
worthy  of  the  company  for  whom  it  is  designed. 

I  consider  a  magazine  as  a  kind  of  bee-hive,  which  both  allures 
the  swarm,  and  provides  room  to  store  their  sweets.  Its  division 
into  cells,  gives  every  bee  a  province  of  its  own ;  and  though 
they  all  produce  honey,  yet  perhaps  they  differ  in  their  taste  for 
flowers,  and  extract  with  greater  dexterity  from  one  than  fiom 
another.  Thus,  we  are  not  all  philosophers^  all  artists^  nor 
all  poets. 


MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS.  85 

TO  ELIHU  PALMER. 


Paris,  Fehruary  21,  1802, 
Dear  Friend,  since  the  Fable  of  Christ. 

I  received,  by  Mr.  Livingston,  the  letter  you  wrote  to  me,  and 
ihe  excellent  work  [the  Principles  of  Nature]  you  have  published. 
I  see  you  have  thought  deeply  on  the  subject,  and  expressed  your 
thoughts  in  a  strong  and  clear  style.  The  hinting  and  intimating 
manner  of  writing  that  was  formerly  used  on  subjects  of  this  kind, 
produced  skepticism,  but  not  conviction.  It  is  necessary  to  be 
bold.  Some  people  can  be  reasoned  into  sense,  and  others  must 
be  shocked  into  it.  Say  a  bold  thing  that  will  stagger  them,  and 
they  will  begin  to  think. 

There  is  an  intimate  friend  of  mine,  Colonel  Joseph  Kirkbridge 
of  Bordentown,  New  Jersey,  to  whom  I  would  wish  you  to  send 
your  work.  He  is  an  excellent  man,  and  perfectly  in  our  senti- 
ments. You  can  send  it  by  the  stage  that  goes  partly  by  land 
and  partly  by  water,  between  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  and 
passes  through  Bordentown. 

I  expect  to  arrive  in  America  in  May  next.  I  have  a  third 
part  of  the  Age  of  Reason  to  publish  when  I  arrive,  which,  if  I 
mistake  not,  will  make  a  stronger  impression  than  any  thing  I 
have  yet  published  on  the  subject. 

I  write  tliis  by  an  ancient  colleague  of  mine  in  the  French 
Convention,  the  citizen  Lequinio,  who  is  going  Consul  to  Rhode 
Island,  and  who  waits  while  I  write. 

Yours  in  friendship, 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


THOMAS  PAINE  AT  70. 


[From  Travels  in  the  U.  S.  of  America  in  1806,  7,  and  9,  10,  and  11, 
by  John  Mellish.] 

I  continued  in  New  York,  transacting  various  mercantile  business,  until 
the  25th  of  September  ;  during  which  time  I  again  called  on  Thomas 
Paine,  in  company  with  his  friend,  formerly  mentioned.  Paine  was  still 
at  the  house  of  Mrs.  Palmer,  but  his  leg  had  got  much  better,  and  he  was 
in  good  spirits.  News  had  arrived  that  morning  that  peace  had  been  con- 
cluded between  France  and  England  ;  but  Paine  said,  he  did  not  believe 
it;  and  again  affirmed,  that  while  the  present  form  of  government  lasted 
in  England,  there  would  be  no  peace.  The  government  was  committed 
in  a  war  system,  and  would  prosecute   it  as  long  as  they  could  command 


86  MISCELLANEOUS  LETTERS  AND  ESSAYS. 

the  means.  He  then  turned  up  a  newspaper,  which  had  recently  been 
established  at  New  York,  and,  after  reading  several  paragraphs,  he  ob. 
served  that  he  could  not  understand  what  the  editor  was  driving  at.  He 
pretended  to  be  a  great  friend  of  Britain,  and  yet  he  was  constantly 
writing  against  peace,  and  the  best  interests  of  the  country  ;  and  in  place 
of  being  guided  by  the  plain  dictates  of  common  sense,  he  aimed  at  flowery, 
embellished  language,  and  glided  away  into  the  airy  regions  of  speculative 
nonsense,  more  like  a  madman  than  the  editor  of  a  newspaper.  After  a 
good  deal  of  general  conversation,  we  took  our  leave. 

A  few  days  after  tliis,  his  friend  handed  me  a  piece  in  MS.,  intended  for 
the  newspapers  ;  and  requested  me  to  copy  it,  and  keep  the  original ;  and 
as  Paine  has  made  a  great  noise  in  the  world,  I  shall  here  insert  it,  as  a 
relic  of  an  extraordinary  political  character,  and  as  a  very  good  .specimen 
of  the  acuteness  of  his  mind,  and  his  turn  for  wit,  at  the  advanced  age 
of  70. 

FOR  THE  CITIZEN. 

"  It  must  be  a  great  consolation  to  poor  Mr. -'s  friends,  if  he 

has  any,  to  hear  that  his  insanity  increases  beyond  all  hopes  of  a 
recovery.  His  case  is  truly  pitiable ;  he  works  hard  at  the  trade 
of  niischief-raaking ;  but  he  is  not  a  good  hand  at  it,  for  the  case 
is,  the  more  he  labors,  the  more  he  is  laughed  at,  and  his  malady 
increases  with  every  laugh. 

"  In  his  paper  of  Thursday,  September  18lh,  the  spirit  of  pro- 
phecy seizes  him,  and  he  leaps  from  the  earth,  gets  astride  of  a 
cloud,  and  predicts  universal  darkness  to  the  inhabitants  of  this 
lower  world. 

"  Speaking  of  the  rumors  of  peace  between  France  and  Eng- 
land, he  says,  '  we  will  not  believe  it  till  we  see  it  gazetted  (mean- 
ing in  the  London  Gazette),  and  then,'  says  he, '  we  will  aver,  that 
the  sun  which  dawns  upon  that  event  will  be  the  darkest  that  ever 
rose  since  the  transgression  of  our  first  parents  brought  sin  into  the 
world.'  This  is  the  first  time  we  ever  heard  of  the  sun  shining 
darkness.  But  darkness  or  light,  sense  or  nonsense,  sunshine  or 
moonshine,  are  all  ahke  to  a  lunatic.  He  then  goes  on  :  '  In  a 
continuance,'  says  he,  '  of  war  only  can  Britain  look  for  salvation. 
That  star  once  distinguished,  all  will  be  darkness  and  eternal  night 
over  the  face  of  the   creation.'     The  devil  it  will  !     And   pray, 

Mr. ,  will  the  moon  shine  darkness  too  1  and  will  all  the  stars 

hcinkle  darkness  ?  If  that  should  be  the  case,  you  had  better  sell 
your  press,  and  set  up  tallow-chandlei  There  will  be  more 
demand  for  candles  than  for  newspapers,  when  those  dark  days 
come. 

"  But  as  you  are  a  man  that  write  for  a  livelihood,  and  I  sup- 
pose you  find  it  hard  work  to  rub  on,  I  would  advise  you,  as  a 
friend,  not  to  lay  out  all  your  cash  upon  candle-making,  for  my 
opinion  is,  that,  whether  England  make  peace  or  not,  or  whether 
she  is  conquered  or  not  conquered,  the  sun  will  rise  as  glorious, 
and  shine  as  bright  on  that  day,  as  if  no  such  trifling  things  had 
happened." 

It  a<ppeared  in  the  sequel,  that  Paine  was  correct  in  his  opinion,  and 
the  editor  was  gratified  in  his  wish — there  was  no  peace. 


THE 


MISCELLANEOUS  POEMS, &C. 


THOMAS    PAINE, 


SECRETARY  TO  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS 

IN   THE  AMERICAN   REVOLUTION,  AUTHOR  OF 

"COMMON   SENSE,"   "THE  CRISIS," 

"RIGHTS  OF  MAN,"  &c. 


MISCELLANEOUS  POEMS,  &c. 


SONG. 


Tune — Rule  Britannia. 


Hail  great  Republic  of  the  world, 

Which  rear'd,  which  rear'd  her  empire  in  the  west, 
Where  fam'd  Columbus',  Columbus*  flag  unfurl'd, 
Gave  tortured  Europe  scenes  of  rest ; 

Be  thou  forever,  forever  great  and  free, 
The  land  of  Love,  and  Liberty ! 

Beneath  thy  spreading,  mantling  vine, 

Beside,  beside  each  flowery  grove  and  spring, 

And  where  thy  lofty,  thy  lofty  mountains  shine. 
May  all  thy  sons  and  fair  ones  sing. 

Be  thou  forever,  &c. 

From  thee,  may  hellish  Discord  prowl. 

With  all,  with  all  her  dark  and  hateful  train ; 

And  whilst  thy  mighty,  thy  mighty  waters  roll, 
May  heaven  descended  Concord  reign. 

Be  thou  forever,  &c. 

Where'er  the  Atlantic  surges  lave. 

Or  sea,  or  sea  the  human  eye  delights, 

There  may  thy  starry,  thy  starry  standard  wave, 
The  Constellation  of  thy  Rights  ! 

Bo  thou  forever,  &c. 

May  ages  as  they  rise  proclaim. 

The  glories,  the  glories  of  thy  natal  day ; 


MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC. 

And  states  from  thy,  from  thy  exalted  name, 
Learn  how  to  rule,  and  to  obey. 

Be  thou  forever,  &c. 

Let  Laureats  make  their  birthdays  known. 

Or  how,  or  how  war's  thunderbolts  are  hurl'd; 
*Tis  ours  the  charter,  the  charter  ours  alone. 
To  sing  the  birthday  of  a  world ! 

Be  thou  forever,  forever,  great  and  free, 
The  land  of  Love  and  Liberty  ! 


THE  BOSTON  PATRIOTIC  SONG. 

Tune — Anacreon  in  Heaven. 

Ye  Sons  of  Columbia  who  bravely  have  fought. 

For  those  rights  which  unstain'd  from  your  sires  have  descended, 
May  you  long  taste  the  blessings  your  valor  has  bought, 
And  your  sons  reap  the  soil  which  their  fathers  defended; 
Mid  the  reign  of  mild  peace. 
May  your  nation  increase, 
With  the  glory  of  Rome,  and  the  wisdom  of  Greece. 

And  ne'er  may  the  sons  of  Columbia  be  slaves, 
While  the  earth  bears  a  plant  or  the  sea  rolls  its  waves. 

In  a  clime  whose  rich  vales  feed  the  marts  of  the  world. 
Whose  shores  are  unshaken  by  Europe's  commotion ; 
The  trident  of  commerce  should  never  be  hurl'd. 
To  increase  the  legitimate  power  of  the  ocean ; 
But  should  pirates  invade. 
Though  in  thunder  array'd. 
Let  your  cannon  declare  the  free  charter  of  trade. 
For  ne'er  shall  the  sons,  &c. 

The  fame  of  our  arms,  of  our  laws  the  mild  sway. 

Had  justly  ennobled  our  nation  in  story. 
Till  the  dark  clouds  of  fiction  obscured  our  bright  day, 

And  envelop'd  the  sun  of  American  glory ;    * 


MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC. 

But  let  traitors  be  told, 
Who  their  country  have  sold. 
And  barter'd  their  God,  for  his  image  in  gold, 

That  ne'er  shall  the  sons,  &c. 

While  France  her  huge  limbs  bathes  recumbent  in  blood, 

And  society's  base  threats  with  wide  dissolution ; 
May  Peace  like  the  dove,  who  return'd  from  the  flood, 
Find  an  Ark  of  abode  in  our  mild  Constitution ; 
But  tho'  peace  is  our  aim. 
Yet  the  boon  we  disclaim, 
If  bought  by  our  Sovereignty,  Justice,  or  Fame. 

For  ne'er  shall  the  sons,  &c. 

'Tis  the  fire  of  the  flint  each  American  warms, 

Let  Rome's  liaughty  victors  beware  of  collision  1 
Let  them  bring  all  the  vassals  of  Europe  in  arms. 
We're  a  World  by  ourselves,  and  disdain  a  division ; 
While  with  patriot  pride, 
To  our  laws  we're  allied. 
No  foe  can  subdue  us,  no  faction  divide ; 

For  ne'er  shall  the  sons,  &c. 

Our  mountains  are  crown'd  with  imperial  oak. 

Whose  roots  like  our  Liberty  ages  have  nourish'd. 
But  long  e'er  the  nation  submits  to  the  yoke, 

Not  a  tree  shall  be  left  on  the  soil  where  it  flourish'd. 
Should  invasion  impend. 
Every  grove  would  descend, 
From  the  hill  tops  they  shaded,  our  shores  to  defend. 
For  ne'er  shall  the  sons,  &c. 

Let  our  patriots  destroy  vile  anarchy's  worm, 

Lest  our  Liberty's  growth  should  be  check'd  by  corrosion, 
Then  let  clouds  thicken  round  us,  we  heed  not  the  storm. 
Our  earth  fears  no  shock,  but  the  earth's  own  explosion, 
Foes  assail  us  in  vain, 
Tho*  their  fleets  bridge  the  main. 
For  our  altars,  and  claims,  with  our  lives  we'll  maintain. 
For  ne'er  shall  the  sons,  &c. 


6  MISCEIiLANEOUS   POEMS,  ETC. 

Should  the  tempest  of  war  overshadow  our  land, 

Its  bolts  can  ne'er  rend  Freedom's  temple  asunder; 
For  unmoved  at  its  portals  would  Washington  stand 
And  repulse  with  his  breast  the  assauhs  of  the  thunder. 
His  sword  from  its  sleep. 
In  its  scabbard  would  leap, 
And  conduct  with  its  point  every  flash  to  the  deep. 
For  ne'er  shall  the  sons,  &c. 

Let  Fame,  to  the  world,  sound  America's  voice, 

No  intrigue  can  her  sons  from  their  government  sever ; 
Its  wise  regulations  and  laws  are  their  choice. 
And  shall  flourish  till  Liberty  slumber  forever. 
Then  unite  heart  and  hand, 
Like  Leonidas'  band ; 
And  swear  by  the  God  of  the  ocean  and  land,      * 

That  ne'er  shall  the  sons  of  Columbia  be  slaves. 
While  the  earth  bears  a  plant,  or  the  sea  rolls  its  waves. 


SONG. 


Tune — Anacreon  in  Heaven. 


To  Columbia,  who  gladly  reclined  at  her  ease, 
On  Atlantic's  broad  bosom,  lay  smiling  in  peace, 
Minerva  flew  hastily,  sent  from  above, 
And  addrest  her  this  message  from  thundering  Jove  : 

Rouse,  quickly  awake, 

Your  Freedom's  at  stake. 
Storms  arise,  your  renown'd  Independence  to  shake, 
Then  lose  not  a  moment,  my  aid  I  will  lend. 
If  your  sons  will  assemble  your  Rights  to  defend. 

Roused  Columbia  rose  up,  and  indignant  declared, 
That  no  nation  she  had  wrong'd,  and  no  nation  she  fear'd, 
That  she  wished  not  for  war,  but  if  war  were  her  fate, 
She  would  rally  up  souls  independent  and  great. 


MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS    ETC. 

Then  tell  mighty  Jove, 

That  we  quickly  will  prove, 
We  deserve  the  protection  he'll  send  from  above; 
For  ne'er  shall  the  sons  of  America  bend, 
But  united  their  Rights  and  their  Freedom  defend. 

Minerva  smiled  cheerfully  as  she  withdrew, 
Enraptured  to  find  her  Americans  true, 
"For,"  said  she,  "our  sly  Mercury  ofttimes  reports, 
That  your  sons  are  divided" — Columbia  retorts, 

"  Tell  that  vile  god  of  thieves. 

His  report  but  deceives. 
And  we  care  not  what  madman  such  nonsense  believes, 
For  ne'er  shall  the  sons  of  America  bend. 
But  united  their  Rights  and  their  Freedom  defend." 

Jove  rejoiced  in  Columbia  such  union  to  see. 
And  swore  by  old  Styx  she  deserved  to  be  free ; 
Then  assembled  the  Gods,  who  all  gave  consent. 
Their  assistance  if  needful  her  ill  to  prevent ; 

Mars  arose,  shook  his  armor. 

And  swore  his  old  Farmer 
Should  ne'er  in  his  country  see  aught  that  could  harm  her. 
For  ne'er  should  the  sons  of  America  bend, 
But  united  their  Rights  and  their  Freedom  defend. 

Minerva  resolved  that  her  iEgis  she'd  lend, 
And  Apollo  declared  he  their  cause  would  defend. 
Old  Vulcan  an  armor  would  forge  for  their  aid, 
More  firm  than  the  one  for  Achilles  he  made. 
Jove  vow'd  he'd  prepare, 
A  compound  most  rare, 
Of  courage  aad  union,  a  bountiful  share ; 
And  swore  ne'er  shall  the  sons  of  America  bend. 
But  their  Rights  and  tlieir  Freedom  most  firmly  defend. 

Ye  sons  of  Columbia,  th<5n  join  hand  in  hand, 
Divided  we  fall,  but  united  we  stand  ; 
*Tis  ours  to  determine,  'tis  ours  to  decree, 
That  in  peace  we  will  live  Independent  and  Free ; 


8  MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC. 

And  should  from  afar 

Break  the  horrors  of  war, 
We'll  always  be  ready  at  once  to  declare, 
That  ne'er  will  the  sons  of  America  bend, 
But  united  their  Rights  and  their  Freedom  defend. 


THE  DEATH  OF  GENERAL  WOLFE.* 


In  a  mouldering  cave,  wnere  the  wretched  retreat, 

Britannia  sat  wasted  with  care  ; 
She  mourn'd  for  her  Wolfe,  and  exclaim'd  against  fate 

And  gave  herself  up  to  despair. 
The  walls  of  her  cell  she  had  sculptured  around 

With  the  feats  of  her  favorite  son ; 
And  even  the  dust,  as  it  lay  on  the  ground. 

Was  engraved  with  the  deeds  he  had  done. 

The  sire  of  the  Gods,  from  his  crystalline  throne, 

Beheld  the  disconsolate  dame. 
And  moved  with  her  tears,  he  sent  Mercury  down, 

And  these  were  the  tidings  that  came. 
Britannia  forbear,  not  a  sigh  nor  a  tear 

For  thy  Wolfe  so  deservedly  loved. 
Your  tears  shall  be  changed  into  triumphs  of  joy, 

For  thy  Wolfe  is  not  dead  but  removed. 

The  sons  of  the  East,  the  proud  giants  of  old, 

Have  crept  from  their  darksome  abodes, 
And  this  is  the  news  as  in  Heaven  it  was  told. 

They  were  marching  to  war  with  the  Gods ; 

•  This  Song  was  written  immediately  after  the  death  of  General  Wolfe. 
At  this  time  a  prize  was  offered  for  the  best  Epitaph  on  that  celebrated  hero. 
Mr.  Paine  entered  the  list  among  other  compedtors,  but  his  matter  growing 
too  long  for  an  Epitaph,  and  assuming  another  shape,  he  entitled  it  an  Ode; 
and  it  was  so  published  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine.  It  was  soon  after 
set  to  music,  became  a  popular  song,  and  was  sung  at  the  Anacreontic  tuoA 
other  societies. — Ed. 


MISCELLANEOUS   POEMS,  ETC. 

A  council  was  held  in  the  chambers  of  Jove, 

And  this  was  their  final  decree, 
That  Wolfe  should  be  called  to  the  armies  above, 

And  the  charge  was  entrusted  to  me. 

To  the  plains  of  Quebec  with  the  orders  I  flew, 

He  begg'd  for  a  moment's  delay ; 
He  cry'd,  Oh!  forbear,  let  me  victory  hear, 

And  then  thy  command  I'll  obey. 
With  a  darksome  thick  film  1  encompjiss'd  his  eyes, 

And  bore  him  away  in  an  urn. 
Lest  the  fondness  he  bore  to  his  own  native  shore, 

Should  induce  him  again  to  return. 


LIBERTY  TREE. 
A  Songf  written  early  in  the  American  Revolution. 

Tune— Gods  of  the  Greeks. 

In  a  chariot  of  light,  from  the  regions  of  day, 

The  Goddess  of  Liberty  came. 
Ten  thousand  celestials  directed  her  way. 

And  hither  conducted  the  dame. 
A  fair  budding  branch  from  the  gardens  above. 

Where  millions  with  millions  agree, 
She  brought  in  her  hand  as  a  pledge  of  her  love, 

And  the  plant  she  named  Liberty  Tree. 

The  celestial  exotic  struck  deep  in  the  ground. 

Like  a  native  it  flourished  and  bore ; 
The  fame  of  its  fruit  drew  the  nations  around. 

To  seek  out  this  peaceable  shore. 
Unmindful  of  names  or  distinctions  they  came, 

For  freemen  like  brothers  agree ; 
With  one  spirit  endued,  they  one  friendship  pursued. 

And  their  temple  was  Liberty  Tree. 


to  MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC. 

Beneath  this  fair  tree,  like  the  patriarchs  of  old, 

Their  bread  in  contentment  they  ate, 
Unvexed  with  the  troubles  of  silver  or  gold, 

The  cares  of  the  grand  and  the  great. 
With  timber  and  tar,  they  Old  England  supplied, 

And  supported  her  power  on  the  sea : 
Her  battles  they  fought,  without  getting  a  groat, 

For  the  honor  of  Liberty  Tree. 

But  hear,  O  ye  swains,  ('tis  a  tale  most  profane,) 

How  all  the  tyrannical  powers. 
King,  commons,  and  lords,  are  uniting  amain, 

To  cut  down  this  guardian  of  ours. 
From  the  east  to  the  west  blow  the  trumpet  to  arms. 

Thro'  the  land  let  the  sound  of  it  flee : 
Let  the  far  and  the  near  all  unite  with  a  cheer, 

In  defence  of  our  Liberty  Tree. 


IMPROMl'TU    ON 

BACHELORS'  HALL, 

At  Philadelphia^  being  destroyed  by  Lightnings  1775. 


Fair  Venus  so  often  was  miss'd  from  the  skies, 
And  Bacchus  as  frequently  absent  likewise, 
That  the  synod  began  to  inquire  out  the  reason. 
Suspecting  the  culprits  were  plotting  of  treason. 
At  length  it  was  found  they  had  open'd  a  ball 
At  a  place  by  the  mortals  call'd  Bachelors'  Hall; 
Where  Venus  disclosed  every  fun  she  could  think  of, 
And  Bacchus  made  nectar  for  mortals  to  drink  of. 
Jove,  highly  displeas'd  at  such  riotous  doings. 
Sent  Time  to  reduce  the  whole  building  to  ruins ; 
But  Time  was  so  slack  with  his  traces  and  dashes. 
That  Jove  in  a  passion  consumed  it  to  ashes. 


MISCELLANEOUS  POEMS,  ETC.  11 


FARiMER  SHORT'S  DOG,  PORTER,  A  TALE. 


The  following  story,  ridiculous  as  it  is,  is  a  fact.  A  farmer  at  New 
Shoreham,  near  Brighthelmstone,  having  voted  at  an  election  for  a  member 
of  parliament  contrary  to  the  pleasure  of  three  neighboring  justices,  they 
took  revenge  on  his  dog,  which  they  caused  to  be  hanged,  for  starting  a 
hare  uprva  the  hi^h  road. 


Three  justices  (so  says  the  tale) 

Once  met  upon  the  public  weal. 

For  learning,  law,  and  parts  profound, 

Their  fame  was  spread  the  country  round ; 

Each  by  his  wondrous  art  could  tell 

Of  things  as  strange  as  Sydrophel ; 

Or  by  the  help  of  sturdy  ale, 

So  cleverly  could  tell  a  tale. 

That  half  the  gaping  standers  by 

Would  laugh  aloud ;  the  rest  would  cry. 

Or  by  the  help  of  nobler  wine, 

Would  knotty  points  so  nice  define. 

That  in  an  instant  right  was  wrong, 

Yet  did  not  hold  that  station  long, 

For  while  they  talk'd  of  wrong  and  right. 

The  question  vanish'd  out  of  sight. 

Each  knew  by  practice  where  to  turn 

To  every  powerful  page  in  Burn, 

And  could  by  help  of  note  and  book 

Talk  law  like  Littleton  and  Coke. 

Each  knew  by  instinct  when  and  where 

A  farmer  caught  or  kill'd  a  hare ; 

Could  tell  of  any  man  had  got 

One  hundred  pounds  per  ann.  or  not; 

Or  what  was  greater,  could  divine 

If  it  was  only  ninety-nine. 

For  when  the  hundred  wanted  one. 

They  took  away  the  owner's  gun. 


12  MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC. 

Knew  by  the  leering  of  an  eye 
If  girls  had  lost  their  chastity, 
And  if  they  had  not — would  divine 
Some  way  to  make  their  virtue  shine. 

These  learned  brothers  being  assembled, 
(At  which  the  country  feared  and  trembled,) 
A  warrant  sent  to  bring  before  'em, 
One  Farmer  Short,  who  dwelt  at  Shoreham, 
Upon  a  great  and  heavy  charge, 
Which  we  shall  here  relate  at  large. 
That  those  who  were  not  there  may  read. 
In  after  days,  the  mighty  deed : 

Viz. 
"  That  he,  the  'foresaid  Farmer  Short, 
Being  by  the  devil  moved,  had  not 
One  hundred  pounds  per  annum  got; 
That  having  not  (in  form  likewise) 
The  fear  of  God  before  his  eyes. 
By  force  and  arms  did  keep  and  cherish, 
Within  the  aforesaid  town  and  parish, 
Against  the  statute  so  provided. 
A  dog.     And  there  the  dog  abided. 
That  he,  this  dog,  did  then  and  there. 
Pursue,  and  take,  and  kill  a  bare  ; 
Which  treason  was,  or  some  such  thing. 
Against  our  sovereign  lord  the  king." 

The  constable  was  bid  to  jog, 
And  bring  the  farmer — not  the  dog. 

But  fortune,  whose  perpetual  wheel 
Grinds  disappointment  sharp  as  steel, 
On  purpose  to  attack  the  pride 
Of  those  who  over  others  ride, 
So  nicely  brought  the  matter  round, 
That  Farmer  Short  could  not  be  found, 
Which  plunged  the  bench  in  so  much  doubt. 
They  knew  not  what  to  go  about. 


1 


MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC.  18 

But  after  pondering  pro  and  con, 

And  niighty  reasonings  thereupon. 

They  found,  on  opening  of  the  laws, 

That  he,  the  dog  aforesaid,  was 

By  being  privy  to  .the  fact, 

Within  the  meaning  of  the  act. 

And  since  the  master  had  withdrawn, 

And  was  the  Lord  knows  whither  gone, 

They  judged  it  right,  and  good  in  law, 

Tliat  he,  the  dog,  should  answer  for 

Such  crimes  as  they  by  proof  could  show, 

Were  acted  by  himself  and  Co. 

The  constable  again  was  sent. 

To  bring  the  dog ;  or  dread  the  event. 

Poor  Porter,  right  before  the  door, 
Was  guarding  of  his  master's  store; 
And  as  the  constable  approach'd  him. 
He  caught  him  by  the  leg  and  broach'd  him  ; 
Poor  Porter  thought  (if  dogs  can  think) 
He  came  to  steal  his  master's  chink. 

The  man,  by  virtue  of  his  staff. 

Bid  people  help;  not  stand  and  laugh; 

On  which  a  mighty  rout  began; 

Some  blamed  the  dog,  and  some  the  man. 

Some  said  he  had  no  business  there. 

Some  said  he  had  business  every  where. 

At  length  the  constable  prevail'd, 

And  those  who  would  not  help  were  jail'd ; 

And  taking  Porter  by  the  collar, 

Commanded  all  the  guards  to  follow. 

The  justices  received  the  felon. 
With  greater  form  than  I  can  tell  on. 
And  quitting  now  their  wine  and  punch, 
Began  upon  him  all  at  once. 

At  length  a  curious  quibble  rose, 
How  far  the  law  could  interpose, 


14  MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC. 

For  it  was  proved,  and  rightly  too, 
That  he,  the  dog,  did  not  pursue 
The  hare  with  any  ill  intent. 
But  only  follow 'd  by  the  scent ; 
And  she,  the  hare,  by  running  hard. 
Thro'  hedge  and  ditch,  without  regard. 
Plunged  in  a  pond,  and  there  was  drown'd, 
And  by  a  neighboring  justice  found  ; 
Wherefore,  though  he  the  hare  annoy'd, 
It  can't  be  said  that  he  destroy'd ; 
It  even  can't  be  proved  he  beat  her. 
And  "  to  destroy,"  must  mean  "  to  eat  her.** 
Did  you  e'er  see  a  gamester  struck. 
With  all  the  symptoms  of  ill  luck? 
Or  mark  the  visage  which  appears, 
When  even  Hope  herself  despairs? 
So  look'd  the  bench,  and  every  brother 
Sad  pictures  drew  of  one  another ; 
Till  one  more  learned  than  the  rest 
Rose  up,  and  thus  the  court  address'd : 

"  Why,  gentlemen,  I'll  tell  ye  how, 

Ye  may  clear  up  this  matter  now, 

For  I  am  of  opinion  strong 

The  dog  deserves,  and  should  be  hung. 

I'll  prove  it  by  as  plain  a  case, 

As  is  the  nose  upon  your  face. 

"  Now  if,  suppose,  a  man,  or  so. 
Should  be  obliged,  or  not,  to  go 
About,  or  not  about,  a  case, 
To  this,  or  that,  or  t'other  place  j 
And  if  another  man,  for  fun. 
Should  fire  a  pistol  (viz.)  a  gun. 
And  he,  the  first,  by  knowing  not 
That  he,  the  second  man,  had  shot. 
Should  undesign'dly  meet  the  bullet, 
Against  the  throat,  (in  Greek)  the  gullet. 
And  get  such  mischief  by  the  hit 
As  should  unsense  him  of   his  wit. 


MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC. 

And  if  that,  after  that  he  died, 

D'ye  think  the  other  mayn't  be  tried  ? 

Most  sure  he  must,  and  hang'd,  because 

He  fired  his  gun  against  the  laws: 

For  'tis  a  case  most  clear  and  plain. 

Had  A  not  shot,  B  had  not  been  slain : 

So  had  the  dog  not  chased  the  hare, 

She  never  had  been  drown 'd — that's  clear." 

This  logic,  rhetoric,  and  wit. 
So  nicely  did  the  matter  hit, 
That  Porter — tho'  unheard,  was  cast, 
And  in  a  halter  breathed  his  last. 
The  justices  adjourned  to  dine. 
And  whet  their  logic  up  with  wine. 


IMPROMPTU  ON 

A  LONG  NOSED  FRIEND.* 
Paris,  1800. 


Going  along  the  other  day. 

Upon  a  certain  plan ; 
I  met  a  nose  upon  the  way. 

Behind  it  was  a  man. 

I  called  unto  the  nose  to  stop. 
And  when  it  had  done  so, — 

The  man  behind  it — he  came  up. 
They  made  Zenobio. 

*  Count  Zenobio. 


16  MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC. 


THE  SNOWDROP  AND  CRITIC, 

A  DIALOGUE. 


To  the  Editor  of  the  Pennsylvania  Magazine^  1775. 
Sir— 

I  have  given  your  very  modest  "  Snow  Drop"*  what,  I  think, 
Shakspeare  calls — "a  local  habitation  and  a  name;"  that  is,  I  have 
made  a  poet  of  him,  and  have  sent  him  to  take  possession  of  a 
page  in  your  next  Magazine:  here  he  comes,  disputing  with  a  critic 
about  the  propriety  of  a  prologue. 

Enter  Critic  and  Snow  Drop. 


Prologues  to  magazines ! — the  man  is  mad. 
No  magazine  a  prologue  ever  had  ; 
But  let  us  hear  what  new  and  mignty  things 
Your  wonder  working  magic  fancy  brings. 

SNOW  DROP. 

Bit  by  the  muse  in  an  unlucky  hour, 

I've  left  myself  at  home,  and  turn'd  a  flower. 

And  thus  disguised  came  forth  to  tell  my  tale, 

A  plain  white  Snow  Drop  gathered  from  the  vale  * 

I  come  to  sing  that  summer  is  at  hand. 

The  summer  time  of  wit,  you'll  understand ; 

And  that  this  garden  of  our  Magazine, 

Will  soon  exhibit  such  a  pleasing  scene. 

That  even  critics  shall  admire  the  show. 

If  their  good  grace  will  give  us  time  to  grow ; 

Beneath  the  surface  of  the  parent  earth. 

We've  various  seeds  just  struggling  into  birth ; 

*  Introduction  to  Magazine,  No.  1. — See  p.  18,  Miscellaawua  Letterf 
and  Essays. 


MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC.  17 

Plants,  fruits,  and  flowers,  and  all  the  smiling  race, 

That  can  the  orchard  or  the  garden  grace ; 

Our  numbers,  Sir,  so  vast  and  endless  are, 

That  when  in  full  complexion  we  appear, 

Each  eye,  each  hand,  shall  pluck  what  suits  its  taste, 

And  every  palate  shall  enjoy  a  feast ; 

The  Rose  and  Lily  shall  address  the  fair. 

And  whisper  sweetly  out,  "  My  dears,  take  care  ; 

With  sterling  worth,  the  Plant  of  Sense  shall  rise, 

And  teach  the  curious  to  philosophize ; 

The  keen  eyed  wit  shall  claim  the  Scented  Briar, 

And  sober  cits  the  Solid  Grain  admire  ; 

While  generous  juices  sparkling  from  the  Vine, 

Shall  warm  the  audience  till  they  cry — divine  ! 

And  when  the  scenes  of  one  gay  month  are  o'er, 

Shall  clap  their  hands,  and  shout — encore !  encore. 


All  this  is  mighty  fine !  but  prithee,  when 

The  frost  returns,  how  fight  you  then  your  men? 

SNOW  DROP. 

I'll  tell  you,  sir !  we'll  garnish  out  the  scenes 

With  stately  rows  of  hardy  Evergreens, 

Trees  that  will  bear  the  frost,  and  deck  their  tops 

With  everlasting  flowers,  like  diamond  drops, 

We'll  draw,  and  paint,  and  carve,  with  so  much  skill, 

That  wondering  wits  shall  cry,  diviner  still ! 


Better,  and  better,  yet!  but  now  suppose, 
Some  critic  wight,  in  mighty  verse  or  prose. 
Should  draw  his  gray  goose  weapon,  dipt  in  gall. 
And  mow  ye  down.  Plants,  Flowers,  Trees,  and  alL 

8N0W  DROP. 

Why,  then  we'll  die  like  Flowers  of  sweet  Perfume, 
And  yield  a  fragrance  even  in  the  tomb ! 


18  MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC. 


AN  ADDRESS  TO  LORD  HOWE. 


At  the  time  the  following  lines  were  written,  Lord  Howe  was  command, 
er  in  chief  of  the  British  forces  in  the  American  revolutionary  war.  Mr. 
Paine  also  addressed  to  liim  the  second  number  of  "The  Crisis,"  dated  at 
Philadelpliia,  Jan.  13,  1777;  in  which  he  remarks.  "Your  avowed  object 
here,  is  to  kill,  conquer,  plunder,  pardon,  and  enslave ;  and  the  ravages  of 
your  army  through  the  Jerseys,  have  been  marked  with  as  much  barbarism 
as  if  you  had  openly  professed  yourself  the  prince  of  ruffians  ;  not  even  the 
appearance  of  humanity  has  been  preserved,  either  on  the  march  or  on  the 
retreat  of  your  troops.  In  a  folio  general  order  book,  belonging  to  colonel 
Rhol's  battalion,  taken  at  Trenton,  and  now  in  possession  of  the  council  of 
safety  of  this  state,  the  following  barbarous  order  is  frequently  repeated, 
•  His  Excellency,  the  Commander  in  Chief,  orders,  that  all  inhabitants  who 
shall  be  found  in  arms,  not  having  an  officer  with  them,  shall  be  immediately 
taken  and  hung  up' ! .  How  many  you  may  thus  have  privately  sacrificed 
we  know  not,  and  the  account  can  only  be  settled  in  another  world." 


The  rain  pours  down,  the  city  looks  forlorn, 
And  gloomy  subjects  suit  the  howling  morn; 
Close  by  my  fire,  with  door  and  window  fast, 
And  safely  shelter'd  from  the  driving  blast, 
To  gayer  thoughts  I  bid  a  day's  adieu. 
To  spend  a  scene  of  solitude  with  you. 

So  oft  has  black  revenge  engross'd  the  care 
Of  all  the  leisure  hours  man  finds  to  spare ; 
So  oft  has  guilt,  in  all  her  thousand  dens, 
Call'd  for  the  vengeance  of  chastising  pens ; 
That  while  I  fain  would  ease  ray  heart  on  you, 
No  thought  is  left  untold,  no  passion  new. 

From  flight  to  flight  the  mental  path  appears,* 
Worn  with  the  Steps  of  near  six  thousand  years, 
And  fiU'd  throughout  with  every  scene  of  pain, 
From  George  the  murderer  down  lO  murderous  Cain. 
Alike  in  cruelty,  alike  in  hate, 
In  guilt  alike,  but  more  alike  in  fate, 


MISCELLANEOUS    I'OEMS,  ETC.  19 

Cursed  supremely  for  the  blood  they  drew, 
Each  from  the  rising  world,  while  each  was  new. 

Go,  man  of  blood !  true  likeness  of  the  first, 
And  strew  your  blasted  head  with  homely  dust : 
In  ashes  sit — in  wretched  sackcloth  weep, 
And  with  unpitied  sorrows  cease  to  sleep. 
Go  haunt  the  tombs,  and  single  out  the  place 
Whore  earth  itself  shall  suffer  a  disgrace. 
Go  spell  the  letters  on  some  mouldering  urn. 
And  ask  if  he  who  sleeps  there  can  return. 
Go  count  the  numbers  that  in  silence  lie. 
And  learn  by  study  what  it  is  to  die ; 
For  sure  your  heart,  if  any  heart  you  own. 
Conceits  that  man  expires  without  a  groan ; 
That  he  who  lives  receives  from  you  a  grace, 
Or  death  is  nothing  but  a  change  of  place: 
That  peace  is  dull,  that  joy  from  sorrow  springs, 
And  war  the  most  desirable  of  things. 
Else  why  these  scenes  that  wound  the  feeling  mind. 
This  spot  of  death — this  cockpit  of  mankind ! 
Why  sobs  the  widow  in  perpetual  pain  ? 
Why  cries  the  orphan  1 — "  Oh  !  my  father's  slain  ! 
Why  hangs  the  sire  his  paralytic  head. 
And  nods  with  manly  grief? — "  My  son  is  dead  !" 
Why  drops  the  tear  from  off  the  sister's  cheek, 
And  sweetly  tells  the  misery  she  would  speak  1 
Or  why,  in  sorrow  sunk,  does  pensive  John 
To  all  the  neighbors  tell,  "  Poor  master's  gone  !'* 

Oh  !  could  I  paint  the  passion  that  I  feel. 
Or  point  a  horror  that  would  wound  like  steel, 
To  thy  unfeeling,  unrelenting  mind, 
I'd  send  destruction  and  relieve  mankind. 
You  that  are  husbands,  fathers,  brothers,  all 
The  tender  names  which  kindred  learn  to  call ; 
Yet  like  an  image  carved  in  massy  stone. 
You  bear  the  shape,  but  sentiment  have  none; 
Allied  by  dust  and  figure,  not  with  mind. 
You  only  herd,  but  live  not  with  mankind. 


20  MISCELLANEOUS    P0EM4»j  ETC. 

Since  then  no  hopes  to  civilize  remain, 
And  mild  Philosophy  has  preached  in  vain, 
One  prayer  is  left,  which  dreads  no  proud  reply, 
That  he  who  made  you  breathe  will  make  you  die. 


TO  SIR  ROBERT  SMITH. 


Paris,  1800. 
As  I  will  not  attempt  to  rival  your  witty  description  of  Love,  (in 
which  you  say,  "  Love  is  like  paper,  with  a  fool  it  is  wit,  with  a 
wit  it  is  folly,"  &c.)  I  will  retreat  to  sentiment,  and  try  if  I  can 
match  you  there :  and  that  1  may  start  with  a  fair  chance,  I  will 
begin  with  your  own  question, 

WHAT  IS  LOVE? 

'Tis  that  delightful  transport  we  can  feel,  i 

Which  painters  cannot  paint,  nor  words  reveal,  > 

Nor  any  art  we  know  of — can  conceal.  j 

Canst  thou  describe  the  sunbeams  to  the  blind, 
Or  make  him  feel  a  shadow  with  his  mind  1 
So  neither  can  we  by  description  show 
This  first  of  all  felicities  below. 

When  happy  Love  pours  magic  o'er  the  soul. 
And  all  our  thoughts  in  sweet  delirium  roll ; 
When  Contemplation  spreads  her  rainbow  wings, 
And  every  flutter  some  new  rapture  brings ; 
How  sweetly  then  our  moments  glide  away, 
And  dreams  repeat  the  raptures  of  the  day : 
We  live  in  ecstacy,  to  all  things  kind. 
For  Love  can  teach  a  moral  to  the  mind. 
But  are  there  not  some  other  marks  that  prove, 
What  is  this  wonder  of  the  soul,  call'd  Level 


MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC.  21 

O  yes,  there  are,  but  of  a  different  kind, 
The  dreadful  Iwrrors  of  a  dismal  mind. 
Some  jealous  fury  throws  her  poison'd  dart, 
And  rends  in  pieces  the  distracted  heart. 

When  Love's  a  tyrant,  and  the  soul  a  slave, 
No  hopes  remain  to  thought,  but  in  the  grave; 
In  that  dark  den,  it  sees  an  end  to  grief. 
And  what  was  once  its  dread,  becomes  relief. 

What  are  the  iron  chains  that  hands  have  wrought  1 
The  hardest  chains  to  break  are  those  of  thougiit. 
Think  well  of  this,  ye  lovers,  and  be  kind, 
Nor  play  with  torture — or  a  tortured  mind. 


Mr.  Paine,  while  in  prison  in  Paris,  corresponded  with  a  lady,  under  the 
signature  of  "The  Castle  in  the  Air,"  while  she  addressed  her  letters  from 
"The  Little  Corner  of  the  World."  For  reasons  which  he  knew  not,  their 
intercourse  was  suddenly  suspended,  and  for  some  time  he  believed  his  fair 
friend  to  be  in  obscurity  and  distress.  Many  years  afterwards,  however,  he 
met  her  unexpectedly  at  Paris,  in  affluent  circumstances,  and  married  to  Sir 
Robert  Smith.     The  following  is  a  copy  of  one  of  these  poetical  effusions. 


FROM 

THE  CASTLE  IN  THE  AIR, 

TO 

THE  LITTLE  CORNER  OF  THE  WORLD 


In  the  region  of  clouds,  where  the  whirlwinds  arise, 

My  Castle  of  Fancy  was  built ; 
The  turrets  reflected  the  blue  from  the  skies. 

And  the  windows  with  sunbeams  were  gilt. 
Sir— 
The  rainbow  sometimes,  in  its  beautiful  state, 

EnamellM  the  mansion  around ; 


22  MISCELLANEOUS    POEMS,  ETC. 

And  the  figures  that  fancy  in  clouds  can  create, 
Supplied  me  with  gardens  and  ground. 

I  had  grottoes,  and  fountains,  and  orange  tree  groves, 

I  had  all  that  enchantment  has  told  ; 
I  had  sweet  shady  walks,  for  the  Gods  and  their  Loves, 

I  had  mountains  of  coral  and  gold. 

But  a  storm  that  I  felt  not,  had  risen  and  roll'd. 

While  wrapp'd  in  a  slumber  I  lay; 
And  when  I  look'd  out  in  the  morning,  behold 

My  Castle  was  carried  away. 

It  pass'd  over  rivers,  and  valiies,  and  groves, 

The  world  it  was  all  in  my  view ; 
I  thought  of  my  friends,  of  their  fates,  of  their  loves, 

And  often,  full  often  of  you. 

At  length  it  came  over  a  beautiful  scene, 

That  nature  in  silence  had  made  ; 
The  place  was  but  small,  but  'twas  sweetly  serene. 

And  chequer'd  with  sunshine  and  shade. 

I  gazed  and  I  envied  with  painful  goodwill. 

And  grew  tired  of  ray  seat  in  the  air ; 
When  all  of  a  sudden  my  Castle  stood  still. 

As  if  some  attraction  was  there. 

Like  a  lark  from  the  sky  it  came  fluttering  down. 

And  placed  me  exactly  in  view. 
When  who  should  I  meet  in  this  charming  retreat, 

This  corner  of  calmness,  but  you. 

Delighted  to  find  you  in  honor  and  ease, 

I  felt  no  more  sorrow,  nor  pain ; 
But  the  wind  coming  fair,  I  ascended  the  breeze, 

And  went  back  with  my  Castle  again. 


MISOELLANEOVfl  POEMS,  ETC. 

CONTENTMENT ;  OR,  IF  YOU  PLEASE,  CON- 
FESSION. 


To  Mrs.  Barlow,  on  her  pleasantly  telling  the  author,  that  after 
writing  against  the  superstition  of  the  Scripture  religion,  he  was 
setting  up  a  religion  capable  of  more  bigotry  and  enthusiasm^ 
and  more  dangerous  to  its  votaries — that  of  making  a  religion 
of  Love. 

0  could  we  always  live  and  love, 
And  always  be  sincere, 

1  would  not  wish  for  heaven  above, 
My  heaven  would  be  here. 

Though  many  countries  I  have  seen, 

And  more  may  chance  to  see. 
My  Little  Corner  of  the  World* 

Is  half  the  world  to  me ; 

The  other  half,  as  you  may  guess, 

America  contains  ; 
And  thus,  between  them,  I  possess 

The  whole  world  for  my  pains. 

I'm  then  contented  with  my  lot, 

I  can  no  happier  be  ; 
For  neither  world,  I'm  sure,  has  got 

So  rich  a  man  as  me. 

Then  send  no  fiery  chariot  down 

To  take  me  off  from  hence. 
But  leave  me  on  my  heavenly  ground— 

This  prayer  is  common-sense. 

Let  others  choose  another  plan, 

I  mean  no  fault  to  find ; 
The  true  theology  of  man 

Is  happiness  of  mind. 

*  Lady  Smith 


S4  MISCELlANEOVS  POEMS,  ETC. 


LINES  EXTEMPORE.    July,  1808. 


Quick  as  the  lightning's  vivid  flash, 
The  poet's  eye  o'er  Europe  rolls  ; 

Sees  battles  rage — hears  tempests  crash. 
And  dims  at  horror's  threat'ning  scowls. 

Mark  ambition's  ruthless  king, 

With  crimson'd  banners  scath  the  globe  ; 
While  trailing  after  conquest's  wing, 

Man's  fest'ring  wounds  his  demons  probe. 

Pall'd  with  streams  of  reeking  gore, 
That  stain  the  proud  imperial  day ; 

He  turns  to  view  the  western  shore, 

Where  freedom  holds  her  boundless  sway. 

'Tis  here  her  sage  triumphant  sways, 
An  empire  in  the  people's  love, 

'Tis  here  the  sovereign  will  obeys. 
No  KING  but  He  who  rules  above. 


LETTER 

TO 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 


Paris,  August  3,  1796. 

As  censure  is  but  awkwardly  softened  by  apology,  I  shall  offer 
you  no  apology  for  this  letter.  The  eventful  crisis  to  which  your 
double  politics  have  conducted  the  affairs  of  your  country,  requires 
an  investigation  uncramped  by  ceremony. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  fame  of  America,  moral  and  politi- 
cal, stood  fair  and  liigh  in  the  world.  The  lustre  of  her  revolution 
extended  itself  to  every  individual,  and  to  be  a  citizen  of  America 
gave  a  title  to  respect  in  Europe.  Neither  meanness  nor  ingrati- 
tude had  been  mingled  in  thp  composition  of  her  character.  Her 
resistance  to  the  attempted  tyranny  of  England  left  her  unsuspected 
of  the  one,  and  her  open  acknowledgment  of  the  aid  she  received 
from  France  precluded  all  suspicion  of  the  other.  The  politics  of 
Washington  had  not  then  appeared. 

At  the  time  I  left  America  (April  1787)  the  Continental  Conven- 
tion, that  formed  the  federal  constitution,  was  on  the  point  of  meet- 
ing. Since  that  time  new  schemes  of  politics,  and  new  distinctions 
of  parties,  have  arisen.  The  term  Anti-fcdcralist  has  been  applied 
to  all  those  who  combated  the  defects  of  that  constitution,  or  oppo- 
sed the  measures  of  your  administration.  It  was  only  to  the  absolute 
necessity  of  establishing  some  federal  authority,  extending  equally 
over  all  the  States,  that  an  instrument  so  inconsistent  as  the  present 
federal  constitution  is,  obtained  a  suffrage.  I  would  have  voted  for 
it  myself,  had  I  been  in  America,,  or  even  for  a  worse  rather  than 


LETTER   TO    WASHINGTON. 


have  had  none,  provided  it  contained  the  means  of  remedying  its 
defects  by  tlie  same  appeal  to  the  people,  by  which  it  was  to  be  es- 
tablished. It  is  always  better  policy  to  leave  renioveable  errors  to 
expose  themselves,  tiian  to  hazard  too  much  in  contending  against 
them  theoretically. 

I  have  introduced  these  observations,  not  only  to  mark  the  gene- 
ral difference  between  Anti-federalist  and  Anti-constitntionalist,  but 
to  preclude  the  effect,  and  even  the  application,  of  the  former  of 
these  terms  to  myself.  I  declare  myself  opposed  to  several  matters 
in  the  constitution,  particularly  to  the  manner  in  which  what  is  call- 
ed the  executive  is  formed,  and  to  the  long  duration  of  the  senate; 
and  if  I  live  to  return  to  America,  I  will  use  all  my  endeavors  to 
have  them  altered.  I  also  declare  myself  opposed  to  almost  the 
whole  of  your  administration;  for  I  know  it  to  have  been  deceitful, 
if  not  perfidious,  as  1  shall  show  in  the  course  of  this  letter.  Bui  as 
to  the  point  of  consolidating  the  States  into  a  Federal  Government,  it 
so  happens,  that  the  proposition  for  that  purpose  came  originally 
from  myself.  I  proposed  it  in  a  letter  to  Chancellor  Livingston  in 
the  spring  of  the  year  1782,  while  that  gentleman  was  minister  for 
foreign  affairs.  The  five  per  cent,  duty  recommended  by  Congress 
had  then  fallen  through,  having  been  adopted  by  some  of  the  States, 
altered  by  others,  rejected  by  Rhode  Island,  and  repealed  by  Vir- 
ginia, after  it  had  been  consented  to.  The  proposal  in  the  letter  I 
allude  to,  was  to  get  over  the  whole  difficulty  at  once,  by  annexing 
a  continental  legislative  bod}'  to  Congress;  for  in  order  to  have  any 
law  of  the  Union  uniform,  the  case  could  only  be,  that  either  Con- 
gress, as  it  then  stood,  must  frame  the  law,  and  the  States  severally 
adopt  it  without  alteration,  or,  the  States  must  erect  a  continental 
legislature  for  the  purpose.  Chancellor  Livingston,  Robert  Morris, 
Governeur  Morris,  and  myself,  had  a  meeting  at  the  house  of  Ro- 
bert Morris  on  the  subject  of  that  letter.  There  was  no  diversity 
of  opinion  on  the  proposition  for  a  continental  legislature :  the  only 
difficulty  was  on  the  manner  of  bringing  the  proposition  forward. 
For  my  own  part,  as  I  considered  it  as  a  remedy  in  reserve,  that 
could  be  applied  at  anytime  when  the.  States  saw  themselves  wrong 
enough  to  he  put  right,  (which  did  not  ap[)ear  to  be  the  case  at  that 
time,)  I  did  not  see  the  propriety  of  urging  it  precipitately,  and  de- 
clined being  the  publisher  of  it  myself.  After  this  account  of  a  fact, 
the  leaders  of  your  party  will  scarcely  have  the  hardiness  to  apply 
to  me  the  term  of  Anti-federalist.     But  I  can  go  to  a  date  and  to  a 


LETTER   TO  WASHINGTON.  O 

fact  beyond  this,  for  tiio  proposition  for  electing  a  continental  con- 
vention. To  form  the  Continental  Government,  is  one  of  the  sub- 
jects treated  of  in  the  pamphlet  Common  Sense. 

Having  thus  cleared  away  a  little  of  the  rubbish  that  might  other- 
wise have  lain  in  my  way,  I  return  to  the  point  of  time  at  which 
the  present  federal  constitution  and  your  administration  began.  It 
was  very  well  said  by  an  anonymous  writer  in  Philadelphia,  about 
a  year  before  that  period,  that  "  thirteen  staves  and  never  a  hoop 
will  not  make  a  barrel,  and  as  any  kind  of  hooping  the  barrel,  how- 
ever defectively  executed,  would  be  better  than  none,  it  was  scarcely 
possible  but  that  considerable  advantages  must  arise  from  the  federal 
hooping  of  the  States.  It  was  with  pleasure  that  every  sincere 
friend  to  America  beheld  as  the  natural  effect  of  union,  her  rising 
prosperity,  and  it  was  with  grief  they  saw  that  prosperity  mixed, 
even  in  the  blossom,  with  the  germ  of  corruption.  Monopolies  of 
every  kind  marked  your  administration  almost  in  the  moment  of  its 
commencement.  The  lands  obtained  by  the  revolution  were  lavish- 
ed upon  partizans;  the  interest  of  the  disbanded  soldier  was  sold  to 
the  speculator;  injustice  was  acted  under  the  pretence  of  faith;  and 
the  chief  of  the  army  became  the  patron  of  the  fraud.  From  such 
a  beginning  what  else  could  be  expected,  than  what  has  happened? 
A  mean  and  servile  submission  to  the  insults  of  one  nation  ;  treach- 
ery and  ingratitude  to  another. 

Some  vices  mike  their  approach  with  such  a  splendid  appear- 
ance, that  we  scarcely  know  to  what  class  of  moral  distinctions  they 
belong.  They  are  rather  virtues  corrupted  than  vices  originally. 
But  meanness  and  ingratitude  have  nothing  equivocal  in  their  cha- 
racter. There  is  not  a  trait  in  them  that  renders  them  doubtful. 
They  are  so  originally  vice,  that  they  are  generated  in  the  dung  of 
other  vices,  and  crawl  into  existence  with  the  filth  upon  their  backs. 
The  fugitives  have  found  protection  in  you,  and  the  levee-room  is 
their  place  of  rendezvous. 

As  the  federal  constitution  is  a  copy,  though  not  quite  so  base  as 
the  original,  of  the  form  of  the  British  Government,  an  imitation  of 
its  vices  was  naturally  to  be  expected.  So  intimate  is  the  connec- 
tion between  form  and  practice,  that  to  adopt  the  one  is  to  invite 
the  other.  Imitation  is  naturally  progressive,  and  is  rapidly  so  in 
matters  that  are  vicious. 

Soon  after  the  federal  constitution  arrived  in  England,  I  receiv- 
ed a  letter  from  a  femijile  literary  correspondent  (a  native  of  New 


6  LETTER    TO  WASHINGTON. 

York)  very  well  mixed  with  friendship,  sentiment,  and  politics.  In 
my  answer  to  that  letter,  I  permitted  myself  to  ramble  into  the  wil-, 
derness  of  imagination,  and  to  anticipate  what  might  hereafter  be 
ihe  condition  of  America.  I  had  no  idea  that  the  picture  I  then  drew 
was  realizing  so  fast,  and  still  less  that  Mr.  Washington  was  hurry- 
ing it  on.  As  the  extract  I  allude  to  is  congenial  with  the  subject  I 
am  upon,  I  here  transcribe  it: 

"  You  touch  me  on  a  very  tender  point,  when  you  say,  that  my 
*^  friends  on  your  side  the  water  cannot  he  reconciled  to  the  idea 
"  of  my  abandoning  America  even  for  my  native  England.  They 
"  are  right.  I  had  rather  see  my  horse.  Button,  eating  the  grass  of 
"  Bordentown  or  Morrissania,  than  see  all  the  pomp  and  show  of 
"  Europe. 

"  A  thousand  years  hence,  for  I  must  indulge  a  few  thoughts, 
"  perhaps  in  less,  America  may  be  what  England  now  is.  The  in- 
"  nocence  of  her  character,  that  won  the  hearts  of  all  nations  in 
"  her  favor,  may  sound  like  a  romance,  and  her  inimitable  virtue 
"  as  if  it  had  never  been.  The  ruins  of  that  liberty,  which  thou- 
"  sands  bled  to  obtain,  may  just  furnish  materials  for  a  village  tale, 
"  or  extort  a  sigh  from  rustic  sensibility ;  while  the  fashionable  of 
"  that  day,  enveloped  in  dissipation,  shall  deride  the  principle,  and 
"  deny  the  fact. 

*'  When  we  contemplate  the  fall  of  empires,  and  the  extinction 
"  of -the  nations  of  the  ancient  world,  we  see  but  little  more  to  ex- 
"  cite  our  regret  than  the  mouldering  ruins  of  pompous  palaces, 
"  magnificent  monuments,  lofty  pyramids,  and  walls  and  towers  of 
"  the  most  costly  workmanship  :  but  when  the  empire  of  America 
"shall  fall,  the  subject  for  contemplative  sorrow  will  be  infinitely 
"  greater  than  crumbling  brass  or  marble  can  inspire.  It  will  not 
"then  be  said.  Here  stood  a  temple.of  vast  antiquity,  here  rose  a 
"  Babel  of  invisible  height,  or  there  a  palace  of  sumptuous  extrava/- 
''•gance  ;  but,  here,  ah  painful  thought !  the  noblest  work  of  human 
"  wisdom,  the  greatest  scene  of  human  glory,  the  fair  cause  of  free- 
''  dom,  rose  and  fell :  Read  this,  and  then  ask  if  I  forget  America." 

Impressed,  as  I  was,  with  apprehensions  of  this  kind,  I  had 
America  constantly  in  my  mind  in  all  the  publications  I  afterwards 
made.  The  First,  and  still  more  the  Second,  Part  of  the  Rights 
of  Man,  bear  evident  marks  of  this  watchfulness;  and  the  Disser- 
tation on  First  Principles  of  Government  goes  more  directly  to  the 
point  than  either  of  the  former.     I  now  pass  on  to  other  subjects. 


LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON.  7 

It  will  be  supposed  by  those  into  whose  hands  this  letter  may  fall, 
that  I  have  some  personal  resentment  against  you ;  and  I  will 
therefore  settle  this  point  before  I  proceed  further. 

If  I  have  any  resentment,  you  must  acknowledge  that  I  have  not 
been  hasty  in  declaring  it,  neither  would  it  now  be  declared  (for 
what  are  private  resentments  to  the  public?)  if  the  cause  of  it  did 
not  unite  itself  as  well  with  your  public  as  with  your  private  charac- 
ter, and  with  the  motives  of  your  political  conduct. 

The  part  I  acted  in  the  American  revolution  is  well  known.  I 
shall  not  here  repeat  it.  I  know,  also,  that,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
aid  received  from  France,  in  men,  money,  and  ships,  your  cold  and 
unmilitary  conduct  (as  1  shall  show  in  the  course  of  this  letter) 
would  in  all  probability  have  lost  America  ;  at  least  she  would  not 
have  been  the  independent  nation  she  now  is.  You  slept  away 
your  time  in  the  field,  till  the  finances  of  the  country  were  com- 
pletely exhausted,  and  you  have  but  little  share  in  the  glory  of  the 
final  event.  It  is  time,  sir,  to  speak  the  undisguised  language  of 
historical  truth. 

Elevated  to  the  chair  of  the  presidency,  you  assumed  the  merit 
of  every  thing  to  yourself;  and  the  natural  ingratitude  of  your  con- 
stitution began  to  appear.  You  commenced  your  presidential  ca- 
reer by  encouraging  and  swallowing  the  grossest  adulation ;  and 
you  travelled  America  from  one  end  to  the  other  to  put  yourself  in 
the  way  of  receiving  it.  You  have  as  many  addresses  in  your  chest  as 
James  the  Second.  As  to  what  were  your  views,  for  if  you  are 
not  great  enough  to  have  ambition  you  are  little  enough  to  have  va- 
nity, they  cannot  be  directly  inferred  from  expressions  of  your  own; 
but  the  partizans  of  your  politics  have  divulged  the  secret. 

John  Adams  has  said,  (and  John  it  is  known  was  always  a  spel- 
ler after  places  and  offices,  dud  never  thought  his  little  services 
were  highly  enough  paid,) — John  has  said,  that  as  Mr.  Washing- 
ton had  no  child,  the  presidency  should  be  made  hereditary  in  the 
family  of  Lund  Washington.  John  might  then  have  counted  upon 
some  sinecure  for  himself,  and  a  provision  for  his  descendants. 
He  did  not  go  so  far  as  to  say,  also,  that  the  vice  presidency 
should  be  hereditary  in  the  family  of  John  Adams.  He  prudent- 
ly left  that  to  stand  on  the  ground,  that  one  good  turn  deserves 
another.* 

•  Two  persons  to  whom  John  Adams  said  this,  told  me  of  it.  The  se- 
cretary of  Mr.  Jay  was  present  when  it  was  told  to  me. 


8  LETTEU  TO  WASHINGTON. 

John  Adams  is  one  of  those  men  who  never  contemplated  the 
origin  of  government,  or  comprehended  any  thing  of  first  princi- 
ples. If  he  had,  he  might  have  seen,  that  the  right  to  set  up  and 
establish  hereditary  government,  never  did,  and  never  can,  exist 
in  any  generation  at  any  time  whatever;  that  it  is  of  the  nature  of 
treason,  because  it  is  an  attempt  to  take  away  the  rights  of  all  the 
minors  living  at  that  time,  and  of  all  succeeding  generations.  It  is 
of  a  degree  beyond  common  treason ;  it  is  a  sin  against  nature. 
The  equal  rights  of  every  generation  is  a  fixed  right  in  the  nature  of 
things ;  it  belongs  to  the  son  when  of  age,  as  it  belonged  to  the  fa- 
ther before  him.  John  Adams  would  himself  deny  the  right  that 
any  former  deceased  generation  could  have  to  decree  authoritatively 
a  succession  of  governors  over  him  or  over  his  children,  and  yet  he 
assumes  a  pretended  right,  treasonable  as  it  is,  of  acting  it  himself. 
His  ignorance  is  his  best  excuse. 

John  Jay  has  said,  (and  this  John  was  always  the  sycophant  of 
every  thing  in  power,  from  Mr.  Girard  in  America,  to  Grenville 
in  England,) — John  Jay  has  said,  that  the  senate  should  have  been 
appointed  for  life.  He  would  then  have  been  sure  of  never  wanting 
a  lucrative  appointment  for  himself,  and  have  had  no  fears  about 
impeachment.  These  are  the  disguised  traitors  that  call  themselves 
federalists.  * 

Could  I  have  known  to  what  degree  of  corruption  and  perfidy  the 
administrative  part  of  the  government  of  America  had  descended, 
I  could  have  been  at  no  loss  to  have  understood  the  reservedness  of 
Mr.  Washington  towards  me  during  my  imprisonment  in  the  Lux- 
embourg. There  are  cases  in  Avhich  silence  is  a  loud  language.  I 
will  here  explain  the  cause  of  that  imprisonment,  and  return  to  Mr. 
Washington  afterwards. 

In  tlie  course  of  that  rage,  terror,  and  suspicion,  which  the  bru- 
tal letter  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  first  started  into  existence  in 
France,  it  happened  that  almost  every  man  who  was  opposed  to 
violence,  or  who  was  not  violent  himself,  became  suspected.  I  had 
constandy  been  opposed  to  every  thing  which  was  of  the  nature  or 
of  the  appearance  of  violence ;  but  as  I  had  always  done  it  in  a 
manner  that  showed  it  to  be  a  principle  founded  in  my  heart,  and 
not  a  political  mancenvre,  it  precluded  the  pretence  of  accusing  me. 
I  was  reached,  however,  under  another  pretence. 

•  If  Mr.  John  Jay  desires  to  know  on  what  authority  I  say  this,  I  will 
give  that  authority  publicly  when  he  chooses  to  call  for  it. 


LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON.  if 

A  decree  was  passed  to  imprison  all  persons  bora  in  England; 
but  as  I  was  a  member  of  the  Convention,  and  had  been  compli- 
mented with  the  honorary  style  of  citizen  of  France,  as  Mr.  Wash- 
ington and  some  other  Americans  have  been,  this  decree  fell  short  of 
reaching  me.  A  motion  was  afterwards  made  and  carried,  support- 
ed chiefly  by  Bourdon  de  I'Oise,  for  expelling  foreigners  from  the 
Convention.  My  expulsion  being  thus  eflected,  the  two  committees 
of  public  safety  and  of  general  surety,  of  wliich  Robespierre  was 
the  dictator,  put  me  in  arrostation  under  the  former  decree  for  im- 
prisoning persons  born  in  England,  Having  thus  shown  under  what 
pretence  the  imprisonmenl  was  effected,  I  come  to  speak  of  such 
parts  of  the  case  as  apj)ly  between  me  and  Mr.  Washington,  either 
as  a  president,  or  as  an  individual. 

I  have  always  considered  tliat  a  foreigner,  such  as  I  was  in  fact, 
with  respect  to  France,  might  be  a  member  of  a  convention  for 
framing  a  constitution,  without  aflecting  his  right  of  citizenship,  in 
the  country  to  which  he  belongs,  but  not  a  member  of  a  govern- 
ment after  a  constitution  is  formed  ;  and  I  have  uniformly  acted  up- 
on this  distinction.  To  be  a  member  of  a  government  requires  a 
person  being  in  allegiance  with  that  government  and  to  the  country 
locally.  But  a  constitution,  being  a  thing  of  principle,  and  not  of 
action,  and  which,  after  it  is  formed,  is  to  be  referred  to  the  people 
for  their  approbation  or  rejection,  does  not  require  allegiance  in  the 
persons  forming  and  proposing  it;  and  besides  this,  it  is  only  to  the 
thing  after  it  is  formed  and  established,  and  to  the  country  after  its 
governmental  character  is  fixed  by  the  adoption  of  a  constitution, 
that  the  allegiance  can  be  given.  No  oath  of  allegiance  or  of  citi- 
zenship was  required  of  the  members  who  composed  the  Conven- 
tion: there  was  nothing  existing  in  form  to  swear  allegiance  to.  If 
any  such  condition  had  been  required,  I  could  not,  as  a  citizen  of 
America,  in  fact,  though  citizen  of  France  by  compliment,  have  ac- 
cepted a  seat  in  the  Convention. 

As  my  citizenship  in  America  was  not  altered  or  diminished  by 
any  thing  I  had  done  in  Europe,  (on  the  contrary,  it  ought  to  have 
been  considered  as  strengthened,  for  it  was  the  American  principle 
of  government  that  I  was  endeavoring  to  spread  in  Europe,)  and 
as  it  is  the  duty  of  every  government  to  charge  itself  with  the  care 
of  any  of  its  citizens  who  may  happen  to  fall  under  an  arbitrary 
persecution  abroad,  (and  this  is  also  one  of  the  reasons  for  which 
ambassadors  or  ministers  are  appointed,)  it  was  the  duty  of  the  ex- 


iO  LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON. 

e(jutive  department  in  America,  to  have  made,  at  least,  some  enqui- 
ries about  me,  as  soon  as  it  heard  of  my  imprisonment.  But  if  this 
had  not  been  the  case,  that  government  owed  it  to  me  on  every 
ground  and  principle  of  honor  and  gratitude.  Mr.  Washington 
owed  it  to  nie  on  every  score  of  private  acquaintance,  1  will  not 
now  say  friendship;  for  it  has  some  time  been  known  by  those  who 
know  him,  that  he  has  no  friendships,  that  he  is  incapable  of  form- 
ing any;  he  can  serve  or  desert  a  man,  or  a  cause,  with  constitu- 
tional indiflerence ;  and  it  is  this  cold  hermaphrodite  faculty  that 
imposed  itself  upon  the  world,  and  was  credited  awliile  by  enemies, 
as  by  friends,  for  prudence,  moderation,  and  impartiality. 

Soon  after  I  was  put  into  arrestation,  and  imprisonment  in  the 
Luxembourg,  the  Americnns  who  were  then  in  Paris,  went  in  a  bo- 
dy to  the  bar  of  the  Convention  to  reclaim  me.  They  were  an- 
swered by  the  then  President  Vadier,  who  has  since  absconded, 
that  /  was  horn  in  England,  and  it  was  signified  to  them,  by  some 
of  the  Conjmittee  of  General  Surety,  to  wiiom  they  were  referred, 
(I  have  been  told  it  was  Billaud  Varennes,)  that  their  reclamation 
of  me  was  only  the  act  of  individuals,  without  any  authority  from 
the  American  government. 

A  few  days  after  this,  all  communication  between  persons  impri- 
soned, and  any  person  without  the  prison,  was  cut  off  by  an  order 
of  the  police.  I  neither  saw  nor  heard  from  any  body  for  six 
months;  and  the  only  hope  that  remained  to  me  was,  that  a  new 
minister  would  arrive  from  America  to  supercede  Morris,  and  that 
he  would  be  authorized  to  inquire  into  the  cause  of  my  imprison- 
ment ;  but  even  this  hope,  in  the  state  to  which  matters  were  daily 
arriving,  was  too  remote  to  have  any  consolatory  effect,  and. I  con- 
tented myself  with  the  thought  that  I  might  be  remembered  when 
it  would  be  too  late.  There  is,  perhaps,  no  condition  from  which 
a  man,  conscious  of  his  own  uprightness,  cannot  derive  consolation ; 
for  it  is  in  itself  a  consolation  for  him  to  find,  that  he  can  bear  that 
condition  with  calmness  and  fortitude. 

From  about  the  middle  of  March  (1794)  to  the  fall  of  Robespierre 
July  29,  (9th  of  Thermidor,)  the  state  of  things  in  the  prisons  was  a 
continued  scene  of  horror.  No  man  could  c  mnt  upon  life  for  twen- 
ty-four hours.  To  such  a  pitch  of  rage  and  suspicion  were  Robes- 
pierre and  his  committee  arrived,  tha",  it  sefemed  as  if  thfM  feared 
to  leave  a  man  to  live.  Scarcely  a  night  passed  in  which  ten,  twenty, 
ihirty,  forty,  fifty,  or  more,  were  not  taken  cut  of  the  prison,  carri 


LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON.  H 

ed  before  a  pretended  tribunal  in  tbe  morning,  and  guillotined  be- 
fore night.  One  hundred  and  sixty-nine  were  taken  out  of  the  Lux- 
embourg one  night,  in  the  month  of  July,  and  one  hundred  and 
sixty  of  them  guillotined.  A  list  of  two  hundred  more,  according 
to  the  report  in  the  prison,  was  preparing  a  few  days  before  Ro- 
bespierre fell.  In  this  last  list  I  have  good  reason  to  believe  I  was 
included.  A  memorandum  in  the  hand-writing  of  Robespierre  was 
afteiTvards  produced  in  the  Convention,  by  the  committee  to  whom 
the  papers  of  Robespierre  were  referred,  in  these  words : 

'  Demander  que  Thomas  Paine  I  "  Demand  that  Thomas  Paine 
'•soitdecrete  d'accusation  pour  "  be  decreed  of  accusation  for 
"  I'interet  de  I'Amerique,  au-  |  "  the  interest  of  America  as 
"  tant  que  de  la  France."  |     "  well  as  of  France." 

I  had  been  imprisoned  seven  months,  and  the  silence  of  the  ex- 
ecutive part  of  the  government  of  America  (Mr.  Washington)  up- 
on the  case,  and  upon  every  thing  respecting  me,  was  explanation 
enough  to  Robespierre  that  he  might  proceed  to  extremities. 

A  violent  fever  which  had  nearly  terminated  my  existence,  was, 
I  believe,  the  circumstance  that  preserved  it.  1  was  not  in  a  con- 
dition to  be  removed,  or  to  know  of  what  was  passing,  or  of  what 
had  passed,  for  more  than  a  month.  It  makes  a  blank  in  my  re- 
membrance of  life.  The  first  thing  I  was  informed  of  was  the  fall 
of  Robespierre. 

About  a  week  after  this,  Mr.  Monroe  arrived  to  supercede  Go- 
verneur  Morris,  and  as  soon  as  I  was  able  to  write  a  note  legible 
enough  to  be  read,  I  found  a  way  to  convey  one  to  him  by  means 
of  the  man  who  lighted  the  lamps  in  the  prison;  and  whose  unabated 
friendship  to  me.  from  whom  he  had  never  received  any  service, 
and  with  difficulty  accepted  any  recompense,  puts  the  character  of 
Mr.  Washington  to  shame. 

In  a  few  days  I  received  a  message  from  Mr.  Monroe,  conveyed 
to  me  in  a  note  from  an  intermediate  person,  with  assurance  of  his 
friendship,  and  expressing  a  desire  that  I  would  rest  the  case  in  his 
hands.  After  a  fortnight  or  more  had  passed,  and  hearing  nothing 
farther,  I  wrote  to  a  friend  who  was  then  in  Paris,  a  citizen  of  Phi- 
ladelphia, requesting  him  to  inform  me  what  was  the  true  situation 
of  things  with  respect  to  me.  I  was  sure  that  something  was  the 
matter  ;  I  began  to  have  hard  thoughts  of  Mr.  AVashington,  but  I 
was  unwilling  to  encourage  them. 

In  about  ten  days,  I  received  an  answer  to  my  letter,  in  which 


12 


LETTER   TO  WASHINGTON. 


the  writer  says,  "  Mr.  Monroe  has  told  me  that  he  has  no  order 
"  (meaning  from  the  president,  Mr.  Washington)  respecting  you, 
"  but  that  he  (Mr.  Monroe)  will  do  every  thing  in  his  power  to  libe- 
"  rate  you  ;  but,  from  what  I  learn  from  the  Americans  lately  ar- 
"  rived  in  Paris,  you  are  not  considered,  either  by  the  American 
"government,  or  by  individuals,  as  an  American  citizen." 

I  was  now  at  no  loss  to  understand  Mr.  Washington  and  his  new 
fangled  faction,  and  that  their  policy  was  silently  to  leave  me  to 
fall  in  France.  They  were  rushing  as  fast  as  they  could  venture, 
without  awakeumg  the  jealousy  of  America,  into  all  the  vices  and 
corruptions  of  the  British  government ;  and  it  was  no  more  consis- 
tent with  the  policy  of  Mr.  Washington,  and  those  who  immediately 
surrounded  him,  than  it  was  with  that  of  Robespierre  or  of  Pitt, 
that  I  should  survive.  They  have,  however,  missed  the  mark,  and 
tlie  reaction  is  upon  themselves. 

Upon  the  receipt  of  the  letter  just  alluded  to,  I  sent  a  memorial 
to  Mr.  Monroe,  which  the  reader  will  find  in  the  appendix,  and  I 
received  from  him  the  following  answer.  It  is  dated  the  18th  of 
September,  but  did  not  come  to  hand  till  about  the  18th  of  October. 
I  was  then  falling  into  a  relapse,  the  weather  was  becoming  damp 
and  cold,  fuel  was  not  to  be  had,  and  the  abscess  in  my  side,  the 
consequence  of  those  things,  and  of  want  of  air  and  exercise,  was 
beginning  to  form,  and  has  continued  immoveable  ever  since.  Here 
follows  Mr.  Monroe's  letter. 

Paris,  September  18th,  1794. 
"  Dear  Sir, 
"  I  was  favored,  soon  after  my  arrival  here,  with  several  letters 
from  you,  and  more  latterly  with  one  in  the  character  of  a  memorial 
upon  the  subject  of  your  confinement ;  and  should  have  answered 
them  at  the  times  they  were  respectively  written,  had  I  not  conclu- 
ded you  would  have  calculated  with  certainty  upon  the  deep  inter- 
est I  take  in  your  welfare,  and  the  pleasure  with  which  I  shall  em- 
brace every  opportunity  in  my  power  to  serve  you.  I  should  still 
pursue  the  same  course,  and  for  reasons  which  must  obviously  occur, 
if  I  did  not  find  that  you  are  disquieted  with  apprehensions  upon 
interesting  points,  and  which  justice  to  you  and  our  country  equally 
forbid  you  should  entertain.  You  mention  that  you  have  been  in- 
formed you  are  not  considered  as  an  American  citizen  by  the  Ame- 
ricans, and  that  you  have  likewise  heard  that  I  had  no  instructions 


LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON. 


13 


respecting  you  by  the  government.  I  doubt  not  the  person  who 
gave  you  the  information  meant  well,  but  I  suspect  he  did  not  even 
convey  accurately  his  own  ideas  on  the  first  point:  for  1  presume 
the  most  he  could  say  is,  that  you  had  likewise  become  a  French 
citizen,  and  which  by  no  means  deprived  you  of  being  an  American 
one.  Even  this,  however,  may  be  doubted,  I  mean  the  acquisition 
of  citizenship  in  France,  and  I  confess  you  have  said  much  to  show 
that  it  has  not  been  made.  I  really  suspect  that  this  was  all  that  the 
gentleman  who  wrote  to  you,  and  those  Americans  he  heard  speak 
upon  the  subject,  meant.  It  becomes  my  duty,  however,  to  declare 
to  you,  that  I  consider  you  as  an  American  citizen,  and  that  you 
are  considered  universally  in  that  character  by  the  people  of  Ame- 
rica. As  such  you  are  entitled  to  my  attention ;  and  so  far  as  it  can 
be  given  consistently  with  those  obligations  which  are  mutual  be- 
tween every  government  and  even  a  transient  passenger  you  shall, 
receive  it. 

"  The  Congress  have  never  decided  upon  the  subject  of  citizen- 
ship, in  a  manner  to  regard  the  present  case.  By  being  with  us 
through  the  revolution,  you  are  of  our  country  as  absolutely  as  if 
you  had  been  born  there,  and  you  are  no  more  of  England,  than 
every  native  American  is.  This  is  the  true  doctrine  in  the  present 
case,  so  far  as  it  becomes  complicated  with  any  other  consideration. 
I  have  mentioned  it  to  make  you  easy  upon  the  only  point  which 
could  give  you  any  disquietude. 

"  It  is  necessary  for  me  to  tell  you  how  much  all  your  country- 
men, I  speak  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  are  interested  in  your 
welfare.  Tlipy  have  not  forgotten  the  history  of  their  own  revolu- 
tion, and  the  difficult  scenes  through  which  they  passed;  nor  do  they 
review  its  several  stages  without  reviving  in  their  bosoms  a  due 
sensibility  of  the  merits  of  those  who  served  them  in  that  great  and 
arduous  conflict.  The  crime  of  ingratitude  has  not  yet  stained,  and 
1  trust  never  will  stain,  our  national  character.  You  are  considered 
by  them,  as  not  only  having  rendered  important  services  in  our  own 
revolution,  but  as  being,  on  a  more  extensive  scale,  the  friend  of 
human  rights,  ajid  a  distinguished  and  able  advocate  in  favor  of 
public  libert)'.  To  the  welfare  of  Thomas  Paine,  the  Americans 
are  not,  nor  can  they  be,  indifferent. 

"  Of  the  sense  which  the  President  has  always  entertained  of 
your  merits,  and  of  liis  friendly  disposition  towards  you,  you  are  too 
well  assured,  to  require  any  declaration  of  it  from  me.  That  I  for- 


14  LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON. 

ward  his  wishes  in  seeking  your  safety  is  what  I  well  know  ;  and 
this  will  form  an  additional  obligation  on  me  to  perform  what  I 
should  otherwise  consider  as  a  duty. 

"  You  are,  in  my  opinion,  at  present  menaced  by  no  kind  of  dan- 
ger. To  liberate  you,  will  be  an  object  of  my  endeavors,  and  as 
soon  as  possible.  But  you  must,  until  that  event  shall  be  accom- 
plished, bear  your  situation  with  patience  and  fortitude  ;  you  will 
likewise  have  the  justice  to  recollect,  that  I  am  placed  here  upon  a 
difficult  theatre,*  many  important  objects  to  attend  to,  and  with  few 
to  consult.  It  becomes  me  in  pursuit  of  those,  to  regulate  my  con- 
duct in  respect  to  each,  as  to  the  manner  and  the  time,  as  will,  in 
my  judgment,  be  best  calculated  to  accomplish  the  whole. 

"  With  great  esteem  and  respect  consider  me  personally  your 
friend,  "  James  Monroe." 

The  part  in  Mr.  Monroe's  letter,  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  Pre- 
sident, (Mr.  Washington,)  is  put  in  soft  language.  Mr.  Monroe 
knew  what  Mr.  Washington  had  said  formerly,  and  he  was  willing 
to  keep  that  in  view.  But  the  fact  is,  not  only  that  Mr.  Washington 
had  given  no  orders  to  Mr.  Monroe  as  the  letter  stated  ;  but  he  did 
not  so  much  as  say  to  him,  inquire  if  Mr.  Paine  be  dead  or  alive, 
in  prison  or  out,  or  see  if  there  be  any  assistance  we  can  give  him. 

While  these  matters  were  passing,  the  liberations  from  the  pri- 
sons were  numerous ;  from  twenty  to  forty  in  the  course  of  almost 
every  twenty-four  hours.  The  continuance  of  my  imprisonment 
after  a  new  minister  had  arl-ived  immediately  from  America,  which 
was  now  more  than  two  months,  was  a  matter  so  obviously  strange, 
that  I  found  the  character  of  the  American  government  spoken  of 
in  very  unqualified  terms  of  reproach ;  not  only  by  those  who  still 
remained  in  prison,  but  by  those  who  were  liberated,  and  by  per- 
sons who  had  access  to  the  prison  from  without.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances I  wrote  again  to  Mr.  Monroe,  and  found  occasion  to  say, 
among  other  things,  "  It  will  not  add  to  the  popularity  of  Mr.  Wash- 
"  ington,  to  have  it  believed  in  America,  as  it  is  believed  here,  that 
"  he  connives  at  my  imprisonment." 

The  case,  so  far  as  it  respected  Mr.  Monroe,  was,  that  having  to 
get  over  the  difficulties,  which  the  strange  conduct  of  Governeur 

*  This  I  presume  alludes  to  the  embarrassments  which  the  strange  con- 
duct of  Governeur  Morris  had  occasioned,  and  which,  I  well  know,  had  cre- 
ated suspicions  of  the  sincerity  of  Mr.  Washington. 


LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON.  15 

Morris  had  thrown  in  the  way  of  a  successor,  and  having  no  autho- 
rity from  tlie  American  government,  to  speak  officially  upon  any 
thing  relating  to  me,  he  found  himself  obliged  to  proceed  by  unof- 
ficial means  with  individual  members  ;  for  though  Robespierre  was 
overthrown,  the  Robespierrian  members  of  the  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  still  remained  in  considerable  force,  and  had  they  found  out 
that  Mr.  Monroe  had  no  official  authority  upon  the  case,  they  would 
have  paid  little  or  no  regard  to  his  reclamation  of  me.  In  the  mean 
time  my  health  was  suffering  exceedingly,  the  dreary  prospect  of 
winter  was  coming  on,  and  imprisonment  was  still  a  thing  of  danger. 
After  the  Robespierrian  members  of  the  Committee  were  removed, 
by  the  expiration  of  their  time  of  serving,  Mr.  Monroe  reclaimed  me, 
and  I  was  liberated  the  4th  of  November.  Mr.  JNIonroe  arrived  in 
Paris  the  beginning  of  August  before.  All  that  period  of  ray  impri- 
sonment, at  least,  I  owe  not  to  Robespierre,  but  to  his  colleague  in 
projects,  George  Washington.  Immediately  upon  my  liberation,  Mr. 
Monroe  invited  me  to  his  house,  where  I  remained  more  than  a  year 
and  a  half;  and  I  speak  of  his  aid  and  friendship,  as  an  open-heart- 
ed man  will  always  do  in  such  a  case,  with  respect  and  gratitude. 

Soon  after  my  liberation,  the  Convention  passed  a  unanimous 
vote,  to  invite  me  to  return  to  my  seat  among  them.  The  times 
were  still  unsettled  and  dangerous,  as  well  from  without  as  within, 
for  the  coalition  was  unbroken,  and  the  constitution  not  settled.  I 
chose,  however,  to  accept  the  invitation  :  for  as  I  undertake  nothing 
but  what  I  believe  to  be  right,  I  abandon  nothing  that  I  undertake  ; 
and  I  was  willing  also  to  show,  that,  a^  I  was  not  of  a  cast  of  mind 
to  be  deterred  by  prospects,  or  retrospects,  of  danger,  so  neither  were 
my  principles  to  be  weakened  by  misfortune  or  perverted  by  disgust. 

Being  now  once  more  abroad  in  the  world,  I  began  to  find  that 
I  was  not  the  only  one  who  had  conceived  an  unfavorable  opinion 
of  Mr.  Washington ;  it  was  evident  that  his  character  was  on  the 
decline  as  well  among  Americans,  as  among  foreigners  of  different 
nations.  From  being  the  chief  of  the  government,  he  had  made 
himself  the  chief  of  a  party ;  and  his  integrity  was  questioned,  for 
his  politics  had  a  doubtful  appearance.  The  mission  of  Mr.  Jay,  to 
London,  notwithstanding  there  was  an  American  minister  there  al- 
ready, had  then  taken  place,  and  was  beginning  to  be  talked  of.  It 
appeared  to  others,  as  it  did  to  me,  to  be  enveloped  in  mystery,  which 
every  day  served  either  to  increase  or  to  explain  into  matter  of 
suspicion. 


16  LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON. 

In  the  year  1 790,  or  about  that  time,  Mr.  Washington,  as  presi- 
dent, had  sent  Governeur  Morris  to  London,  as  his  secret  agent,  to 
have  some  communication  with  the  British  ministry.  To  cover  the 
agency  of  Morris  it  was  given  out,  I  know  not  by  whom,  that  he 
went  as  an  agent  from  Robert  Morris,  to  borrow  money  in  Europe, 
and  the  report  was  permitted  to  pass  uncontradicted.  The  event 
of  Morris's  negociation  was,  that  Mr.  Hammond  was  sent  minister 
from  England  to  America,  Pinkney  from  America  to  England,  and 
himself  minister  to  France.  If,  while  Morris  was  minister  in  France, 
he  was  not  an  emissary  of  the  British  ministry  and  the  coalesced 
powers,  he  gave  strong  reason  to  suspect  him  of  it.  No  one  who 
saw  his  conduct,  and  heard  his  conversation,  could  doubt  his  being 
in  their  interest ;  and  had  he  not  got  off  at  the  time  he  did,  after  his 
recall,  he  would  have  been  in  arrestation.  Some  letters  of  his  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  and  enquiry 
was  making  after  him. 

A  great  bustle  has  been  made  by  Mr.  Washington  about  the  con- 
duct of  Cenet  in  America,  while  that  of  his  own  minister,  Morris, 
in  France,  was  infinitely  more  reproachable.  If  Genet  was  impru- 
dent or  rash,  he  was  not  treacherous ;  but  Morris  was  all  three. 
He  was  the  enemy  of  the  French  revolution,  in  every  stage  of  it. 
But  notwithstanding  this  conduct  on  the  part  of  Morris,  and  the 
known  profligacy  of  his  character,  Mr.  Washington,  in  a  letter  he 
wrote  to  him  at  the  time  of  recalling  him  on  the  complaint  and  re- 
quest of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  assures  him,  that  though 
he  had  complied  with  that  request,  he  still  retained  the  same  esteem 
and  friendship  for  him  as  before.  This  letter,  Morris  was  foolish 
enough  to  tell  of;  and,  as  his  own  character  and  conduct  were 
notorious,  the  telling  of  it  could  have  but  one  effect,  which  was  that 
of  implicating  the  character  of  the  writer.  Morris  still  loiters  in 
Europe,  chiefly  in  England  ;  and  Mr.  Washington  is  still  in  corres- 
pondence with  him.  Mr.  Washington  ought,  therefore,  to  expect, 
especially  since  his  conduct  in  the  affairs  of  Jay's  treaty,  that 
France  must  consider  Morris  and  Washington  as  men  of  the  same 
description.  The  chief  difference,  however,  between  the  two  is, 
(for  in  politics  there  is  none,)  that  the  one  is  profligate  enough  to 
profess  an  indifference  about  moral  principles,  and  the  other  is  pru- 
dent enough  to  conceal  the  want  of  them. 

About  three  months  after  I  was  at  liberty,  the  official  note  of  Jay 
to  Grenville,  on  the  subject  of  the  capture  of  American  vessels  by 


LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON.  17 

the  British  cruisers,  appeared  in  the  American  papers  that  arrived 
at  Paris.  Every  thing  was  of  a  piece — every  thing  was  mean.  Tho 
same  kind  of  character  went  to  all  circumstances  public  or  private. 
Disgusted  at  this  national  degradation,  as  well  as  at  the  particular 
conduct  of  Mr.  Washington  to  me,  I  wrote  to  him  (Mr.  Washing- 
ton) on  the  twenty-second  of  February,  1795,  under  cover  to  the 
then  secretary  of  state,  (Mr.  Randolph,)  and  entrusted  the  letter  to 
Mr.  Letombe,  who  was  appointed  French  consul  to  Philadelphia, 
and  was  on  the  point  of  taking  his  departure.  When  I  supposed 
Mr.  Letombe  had  sailed,  I  mentioned  the  letter  to  Mr.  Monroe, 
and  as  I  was  then  in  his  house,  I  showed  it  to  him.  He  expressed 
a  wish  that  I  would  recall  it,  which  he  supposed  might  be  done,  as 
he  had  learned  that  Mr.  Letombe  had  not  then  sailed.  I  agreed 
to  do  so,  and  it  was  returned  by  Mr.  Letombe  under  cover  to  Mr. 
Monroe.  The  letter,  will,  however,  now  reach  Mr.  Washington 
publicly  in  the  course  of  this  work. 

About  the  month  of  September  following,  I  had  a  severe  relapse, 
wliich  gave  occasion  to  tho  report  of  mv  death.  I  had  felt  it  coming 
on  a  considerable  lime  befure,  which  occasioned  me  to  hasten  the 
work  I  had  then  on  hand.  The  Second  Part  of  the  Age  of  Reason. 
When  I  had  finished  the  work,  I  bestowed  another  letter  on  Mr. 
Washington,  which  I  sent  under  cover  to  Mr.  Franldin  Bache,  of 
Philadelphia.     The  letter  was  as  follows  : 

"TO  GEORGE  WASHINGTON, 

"  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

"  Paris,  September  20,  1795. 
"  Sir, 
.  "  I  had  written  you  a  letter  by  Mr.  Letombe,  French  consul, 
but,  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Monroe,  I  withdrew  it,  and  the  letter  is 
still  by  me.  I  was  the  more  easily  prevailed  upon  to  do  this,  as  it 
was  then  my  intention  to  have  returned  to  America  the  latter  end 
of  the  present  year  (1795;)  but  the  illness  I  now  suffer  prevents 
me.  In  case  I  had  come,  I  should  have  applied  to  you  for  such 
parts  of  your  official  letters  (and  your  private  ones,  if  you  had  cho- 
sen to  give  them)  as  contained  any  instructions  or  directions  either 
to  Mr.  Monroe,  to  Mr.  Morris,  or  to  any  other  person,  respecting 
me  ;  for  after  you  were  informed  of  my  imprisonment  in  France,  it 
was  incumbent  on  you  to  have  made  some  enquiry  into  the  cause, 
as  you  might  very  well  conclude  that  I  had  not  the  opportunity  of 


18  LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON. 

informing  you  of  it.  I  cannot  understand  your  silence  upon  this 
subject  upon  any  other  ground,  than  as  connivance  at  my  impri- 
sonment ;  and  this  is  the  manner  it  is  understood  here,  and  will  be 
understood  in  America,  unless  you  will  give  me  authority  for  con- 
tradicting it.  I  therefore  write  you  this  letter,  to  propose  to  you 
to  send  me  copies  of  any  letters  you  have  written,  that  I  may  re- 
move this  suspicion.  In  the  preface  to  the  Second  Part  of  the  Age 
of  Reason,  I  have  given  a  memorandum  from  the  hand-writing  ot 
Robespierre,  in  which  he  proposed  a  degree  of  accusation  against 
me,  ^^for  the  interest  of  America  as  well  as  of  France. ''''  He  could 
have  no  cause  for  putting  America  in  the  case,  but  by  interpreting 
the  silence  of  the  American  government  into  connivance  and  con- 
sent. I  was  imprisoned  on  the  ground  of  being  born  in  England ; 
and  your  silence  in  not  enquiring  the  cause  of  that  imprisonment, 
and  reclaiming  me  against  it,  was  tacitly  giving  me  up.  I  ought 
not  to  have  suspected  you  of  treachery  ;  but  whether  I  recover 
from  the  illness  I  now  suffer,  or  not,  I  shall  continue  to  think  you 
treaclierous,  till  you  give  me  cause  to  think  otherwise.  I  am  sure 
you  would  have  found  yourself  more  at  your  ease,  had  you  acted 
by  me  as  you  ought ;  for  whether  your  desertion  of  me  was  intend- 
ed to  gratify  the  English  government,  or  to  let  me  fall  into  destruc- 
tion in  France,  that  you  miglit  exclaim  the  louder  against  the 
French  revolution  ;  or  whether  you  hoped  by  my  extinction  to  meei 
with  less  opposition  in  mounting  up  the  American  government ; 
either  of  these  will  involve  you  in  reproach  you  will  not  easily 
shake  off. 

"  Thomas  Paine." 

Here  follows  the  letter  above  alluded  to,  which  had  been  with- 
drawn : 

"TO    GEORGE    WASHINGTON, 

"  PUESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

"  Paris,  February  22,  1795. 
"  Sir, 
"  As  it  is  always  painful  to  reproach  those  one  would  wish  to 
respect,  it  is  not  without  some  difficulty  that  I  have  taken  the  reso- 
lution to  write  to  you.  The  danger  to  which  I  have  been  exposed 
cannot  have  been  unknown  to  you,  and  the  guarded  silence  you 
have  observed  upon  that  circumstance,  is  what  I  ought  not  to  have 


LETTER  TO  WASHINQTON.  19 

expected  from  you,  eitlier  as  a  friend  or  as  President  of  the  United 
States. 

''  You  knew  enough  of  my  character,  to  be  assured  that  I  could 
not  have  deserved  iinprisonment  in  France  ;  and,  witjiout  knowing 
any  tiling  more  than  this,  you  had  sufficient  ground  to  have  taken 
some  interest  for  n)y  safety.  Every  motive  arising  from  recollec- 
tion ought  to  have  suggested  to  you  rhe  consistency  of  such  a  mea- 
sure. But  I  cannot  find  that  yoa  have  so  much  as  directed  an 
enquiry  to  be  made  whether  I  was  in  prison  or  at  liberty,  dead  or 
alive  ;  what  the  cause  of  that  imprisonment  was,  or  whether  there 
was  any  service  or  assistance  you  could  render.  Is  this  what  I 
ought  to  have  expected  from  America,  after  the  part  T  have  acted 
towards  her  ?  Or  will  it  redound  to  her  honor  or  to  your's  that  I 
lell  the  story  1  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  you  have  not  served 
America  with  more  fidelity,  or  greater  zeal,  or  more  disinterested- 
ness, than  myself,  and  perhaps  not  with  better  effect.  After  the 
revolution  of  America  had  been  established,  you  rested  at  home  to 
partake  its  advantages,  and  I  ventured  into  new  scenes  of  difficulty 
to  extend  the  principles  which  that  revolution  had  produced.  In 
the  progress  of  events,  you  beheld  yourself  a  president  in  America, 
and  me  a  prisoner  in  France  ;  you  folded  your  arms,  forgot  your 
friend,  and  became  silent. 

"  As  every  thing  T  have  been  doing  in  Europe  was  connected 
with  ray  wishes  for  the  prosperity  of  America,  I  ought  to  be  the 
more  surprised  at  this  conduct  on  the  part  of  her  government.  It 
leaves  me  but  one  mode  of  explanation,  which  is,  that  evert/  thing 
is  not  as  it  ought  to  be  amongst  you,  and  that  the  presence  of  a 
man  who  might  disapprove,  and  who  had  credit  enough  with  the 
country  to  be  heard  and  believed,  was  not  wished  for.  This  was 
the  operating  motive  with  the  despotic  faction  that  imprisoned  me 
in  France,  (though  the  pretence  was,  that  I  was  a  foreigner,)  and 
those  that  have  been  silent  and  inactive  towards  me  in  America, 
appear  to  me  to  have  acted  from  the  same  motive.  It  is  impossible 
for  me  to  discover  any  other. 

"  After  the  part  I  have  taken  in  the  revolution  of  America,  it  is 
natural  that  I  feel  interested  in  whatever  relates  to  her  character 
and  prosperity.  Though  I  am  not  on  the  spot  to  see  what  is  im- 
mediately acting  there,  I  see  some  part  of  what  she  is  acting  in 
Europe.  For  your  own  sake,  as  well  as  for  that  of  America,  I 
was  both  surprised  and  concerned  at  the  appointment  of  Governeur 


SMil  LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON. 

Morris,  to  be  Minister  to  France.  His  conduct  has  proved,  that 
the  opinion  I  had  formed  of  th?t  appointment  was  well  founded.  1 
wrote  that  opinion  to  Mr.  Jefferson  at  the  time,  and  I  was  frank 
enougli  to  say  the  same  thing  to  INIorris,  that  if  was  a7i  unfortunate 
appointment.  His  prating,  insignificant  pomposity  rendered  liim 
at  once  offensive,  suspected,  and  ridiculous  ;  and  his  total  neglect 
of  all  business,  had  so  disgusted  the  Americans,  that  they  proposed 
drawing  up  a  protest  against  him.  He  carried  this  neglect  to  such 
an  extreme,  that  it  was  necessary  to  inform  him  of  it ;  and  I  asked 
liim  one  day,  if  he  did  not  feel  himself  ashamed  to  take  the  money 
of  the  country,  and  do  nothing  for  it?  But  Morris  is  so  fond  of 
profit  and  voluptuousness,  that  he  cares  nothing  about  character. 
Had  he  not  been  removed  at  the  time  he  was,  I  think  his  conduct 
would  have  precipitated  the  two  countries  into  a  rupture  ;  and  in 
this  case,  hated  systematically  as  America  is,  and  ever  will  be,  by 
the  British  government,  and  at  the  same  time  suspected  by  France, 
the  commerce  of  America  would  have  fallen  a  prey  to  botli. 

If  the  inconsistent  conduct  of  Morris  exposed  the  interest  of 
America  to  some  hazard  in  France,  the  pusillanimous  conduct  of 
Mr.  Jay  in  England  has  rendered  the  American  government  con- 
temptible in  Europe.  Is  it  possible  that  any  man,  who  has  contri- 
buted to  the  independence  of  America,  and  to  free  her  from  the 
tyranny  and  injustice  of  the  British  government,  can  read  without 
shame  and  indignation  the  note  of  Jay  to  Grenville  1  It  is  a  satire 
upon  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  an  encouragement  to 
the  British  government  to  treat  America  whh  contempt.  At  the 
time  this  minister  of  petitions  was  acting  this  miserable  part,  he 
had  every  means  in  his  hands  to  enable  him  to  have  done  his  busi- 
ness as  he  ought.  The  success  or  failure  of  his  mission  depended 
upon  the  success  or  failure  of  the  French  arms.  Had  France  failed, 
Mr.  Jay  might  have  put  his  humble  petition  in  his  pocket,  and 
gone  home.  The  case  happened  to  be  otherwise,  and  he  has  sa- 
crificed the  honor,  and  perhaps  the  advantage  of  it,  by  turning 
petitioner.  I  take  it  for  granted,  that  he  was  sent  over  to  demand 
indemnification  for  the  captured  property ;  and,  in  this  case,  if  he 
thought  he  wanted  a  preamble  to  his  demand,  he  might  have  said, 
"  That,  though  the  government  of  England  might  suppose  itself 
"  under  the  necessity  of  seizing  American  property  bound  to 
"  France,  yet  that  supposed  necessity  could  not  preclude  indemni- 
*'  fication  to  the  proprietors,  who,  acting  under  the  authority  of 


LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON.  21 

"  their  own  government,  were  not  accountable  to  any  other."  But 
Mr,  Jay  sets  out  with  an  implied  recognition  of  the  right  of  the 
British  government  to  seize  and  condemn :  for  he  enters  his  com- 
plaint against  the  irregularity  of  the  seizures,  and  the  condemna- 
tion, as  if  they  were  reprehensible  only  by  not  being  conformable 
to  the  terras  of  the  proclamation  under  which  they  were  seized. 
Instead  of  being  the  envoy  of  a  government,  he  goes  over  like  a 
lawyer  to  demand  a  new  trial.  I  can  hardly  help  thinking  tha* 
Grenville  wrote  that  note  himself,  and  Jay  signed  it ;  for  the  styl 
of  it  is  domestic  and  not  diplomatic.  The  term,  his  Majesty, 
used  without  any  descriptive  epithet,  always  signifies  the  King 
whom  the  minister  represents.  If  this  sinking  of  the  demand  into 
a  petition  was  a  juggle  between  Grenville  and  Jay  to  cover  the 
indemnification,  I  think  it  will  end  in  another  juggle,  that  of  never 
paying  the  money  ;  and  be  made  use  of  afterwards  to  preclude  the 
right  of  demanding  it:  for  Mr.  Jay  has  virtually  disowned  the  right 
by  appealing  to  the  magnanimity  of  his  Majesty  against  the  cap- 
turers.  He  has  made  this  magnanimous  Majesty  the  umpire  in  the 
case,  and  the  government  of  the  United  States  must  abide  by  the 
decision.  If,  Sir,  I  turn  some  part  of  this  business  into  ridicule,  it 
is  to  avoid  the  unpleasant  sensation  of  serious  indignation. 

"  Among  other  things  which  I  confess  I  do  not  understand,  is 
your  proclamation  of  neutrality.  This  has  always  appeared  to  me 
as  an  assumption  on  the  part  of  the  executive.  But  passing  this 
over,  as  a  disputable  case,  and  considering  it  only  as  political,  the 
consequence  has  been  that  of  sustaining  the  losses  of  war,  without 
the  balance  of  reprisals.  When  the  profession  of  neutrality,  on  the 
part  of  America,  was  answered  by  hostilities  on  the  part  of  Britain, 
the  object  and  intention  of  that  neutrality  existed  no  longer;  and 
to  maintain  it  after  this,  was  not  only  to  encourage  farther  insults 
and  depredations,  but  was  an  informal  breach  of  neutrality  towards 
France,  by  passively  contributing  to  the  aid  of  her  enemy.  That 
the  government  of  England  considered  the  American  government 
as  pusillanimous,  is  evident  from  the  increasing  insolence  of  the 
conduct  of  the  former  towards  the  latter,  till  the  affair  of  General 
Wayne.  She  then  saw  that  it  might  be  possible  to  kick  a  govern- 
ment into  some  degree  of  spirit.  So  far  as  the  proclamation  of 
neutrality  was  intended  to  prevent  a  dissolute  spirit  of  privateering 
in  America  under  foreign  colors,  it  was  undoubtedly  laudable; 
but  to  continue  it  as  a  government  neutrality,  after  the  commerce 


XZ  LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON. 

of  America  was  made  war  upon,  was  submission  and  not  neutrality. 
I  nave  heard  so  much  about  this  thing  called  ueutralitj,  that  I 
know  not  if  the  ungenerous  and  dishonorable  silence  (for  I  must 
call  it  such,)  that  has  been  observed  by  your  part  of  the  govern- 
ment towards  me,  durins  my  imprisonment,  has  not  in  some  mea- 
sure arisen  from  that  policy. 

"  Though  I  have  written  yon  this  letter,  you  ought  not  to  sup- 
pose it  has  been  an  agreeable  undertaking  to  me.  On  the  contiary, 
I  assure  you,  it  has  caused  me  some  disquietude.  I  am  sorry  you 
have  given  me  cause  to  do  it ;  for,  as  I  have  always  remembered 
your  former  friendship  with  pleasure,  I  suffer  a  loss  by  your  de- 
priving me  of  that  sentiment. 

"THOMAS    PAL\E." 

That  this  letter  was  not  written  in  verj'  good  temper,  is  very 
evident;  but  it  was  just  such  a  letter  as  his  conduct  appeared  to 
me  to  merit,  and  every  thing  on  his  part  since  has  served  to  con- 
firm that  opinion.  Had  I  wanted  a  commentary  on  his  silence,  with 
respect  to  my  imprisonment  in  France,  some  of  his  faction  have 
furnished  me  with  it.  AVhat  I  here  allude  to,  is  a  publication  in  a 
Philadelphia  paper,  copied  afterwards  into  a  New  York  paper, 
both  under  the  patronage  of  the  Washington  faction,  in  which  the 
writer,  still  supposing  me  in  prison  in  France,  wonders  at  my  lengthy 
respite  from  the  scaffold.  And  he  marks  his  politics  still  farther, 
by  saying,  "  It  appears,  moreover,  that  the  people  of  England  did 
"  not  relish  his  (Thomas  Paine's)  opinions  quite  so  well  as  he  ex- 
'  pected  ;  and  that  for  one  of  his  last  pieces,  as  destructive  to  the 
*'  peace  and  happiness  of  their  country,  (meaning,  I  suppose,  the 
"  Rights  of  Man,)  they  threatened  our  knight  errant  with  such  se- 
"  rious  vengeance,  that,  to  avoid  a  trip  to  Botany  Bay,  he  fled  ovei 
"  to  France,  as  a  less  dangerous  voyage." 

I  am  not  refuting  or  contradicting  the  falsehood  of  this  publica- 
tion, for  it  is  sufficiently  notorious  ;  neither  am  I  censuring  the 
writer:  on  the  contrary,  I  thank  him  for  the  explanation  he  has 
incautiously  given  of  the  principles  of  the  Washington  faction.  In- 
significant, however,  as  the  piece  is,  it  was  capable  of  having  some 
ill  effects,  had  it  arrived  in  France  during  my  imprisonment,  and 
in  the  time  of  Robespierre  ;  and  I  am  not  uncharitable  in  sup- 
posing that  this  was  one  of  the  intentions  of  the  writer.* 

*  1  know  not  who  the  writer  of  the  piece  is,  but  some  of  the  Americans 


LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON.  23 

I  have  now  done  with  Mr.  Washington  on  the  score  of  private 
affairs.  It  would  have  been  far  more  agreeable  to  me  had  his  con- 
duct been  such  as  not  to  have  merited  these  reproaches.  Errors, 
or  caprices  of  the  temper,  can  be  pardoned  and  forgotten  ;  but  a 
cold,  deliberate  crime  of  the  heart,  such  as  Mr.  Washington  is  ca- 
pable of  acting,  is  not  to  be  washed  away.  I  now  proceed  to  other 
matter. 

After  Jay's  note  to  Grenville  arrived  in  Paris  from  America, 
the  character  of  every  thing  that  was  to  follow  might  be  easily 
foreseen  ;  and  it  was  upon  this  anticipation  that  my  letter  of 
February  the  22d  was  founded.  The  event  has  proved  that  I  was 
not  mistaken,  except  that  it  has  been  much  worse  than  I  expected. 

It  would  naturally  occur  to  Mr.  Washington,  that  the  secrecy  of 
Jay*s  mission  to  England,  where  there  was  already  an  American 
minister,  could  not  but  create  some  suspicion  in  the  French  go- 
vernment, especially  as  the  conduct  of  Morris  had  been  notorious, 
and  the  intimacy  of  Mr.  Washington  with  Morris  was  known. 

The  character  which  Mr.  Washington  has  attempted  to  act  in 
the  world,  is  a  sort  of  non-describable,  camelion-colored  thing, 
called  prudence.  It  is,  in  many  cases,  a  substitute  for  principle, 
and  is  so  nearly  allied  to  hypocrisy,  that  it  easily  slides  into  it. 
His  genius  for  prudence  furnished  him,  in  this  instance,  with  an 
expedient  that  served  (as  is  the  natural  and  general  character  of 
ail  expedients)  to  diminish  the  embarrassments  of  the  moment, 
and  multiply  them  afterwards  ;  for  he  caused  it  to  be  announced 
to  the  French  government  as  a  confidential  matter,  (Mr.  Washing- 
ton should  recollect  that  I  was  a  member  of  the  Convention, 
and  had  the  means  of  knowing  what  I  here  state) — he  caused 
it,  I  say,  to  be  announced,  and  that  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 
any  uneasiness  to  France,  on  the  score  of  Mr.  Jay's  mission  to  En- 
gland, that  the  object  of  that  mission,  and  Mr.  Jay's  authority, 
were  restricted  to  the  demanding  of  the  surrender  of  the  west- 
ern posts,  and  indemnification  for  the  cargoes  captured  in  Ameri- 
can vessels.  Mr.  Washington  knows  that  this  was  untrue ;  and 
knowing  this,  he  had  good  reason,  to  himself,  for  refusing  to  fur- 
nish the  House  of  Representatives  with  copies  of  the  instructions 
given  to  Jay,  as  he  might  suspect,  among   other  things,  that  he 

say  it  is  Phineas  Bond,  an  American  refugee,  but  now  a  British  Consul, 
antl  that  he  writes  under  the  signature  of  Peter  Skunk,  or  Peter  Porcupine, 
or  some  such  signature 


24  LETTER   TO    WASHINGTON. 

should  also  be  called  upon  for  copies  of  instructions  given  to  othe/ 
ministers,  and  that,  in  the  contradiction  of  instructions,  his  want  of 
integrity  would  be  detected.  Mr.  Washington  may  now,  perhaps, 
learn,  when  it  is  too  late  to  be  of  any  use  to  him,  that  a  man  will 
pass  belter  through  the  world  with  a  thousand  open  errors  upon 
his  back,  than  in  being  detected  in  one  sly  falsehood.  When  one 
is  detected,  a  thousand  are  suspected. 

The  first  account  that  arrived  in  Paris  of  a  treaty  being  negotia- 
ted by  Mr.  Jay,  (for  nobody  suspected  any,)  came  in  an  English 
newspaper,  which  announced  that  a  treaty,  offensive  and  defensive 
had  been  concluded  between  the  United  States  of  America  and 
England.  This  was  immediately  denied  by  every  American  in 
Paris,  as  an  impossible  thing  and  though  it  was  disbelieved  by 
the  French,  it  imprinted  a  suspicion  that  some  underhand  business 
was  going  forward.  At  length  the  treaty  itself  arrived,  and  every 
well-affected  American  blushed  with  shame. 

It  is  curious  to  observe,  how  the  appearances  of  characters  will 
change,  whilst  the  root  that  produces  them  remains  the  same.  The 
Washington  faction  having  waded  through  the  slough  of  negocia- 
tion,  and  whilst  it  amused  France  with  professions  of  friendship 
contrived  to  injure  her,  immediately  throws  off  the  hypocrite,  and 
assumes  the  air  of  a  swaggering  bravado.  The  party  papers  of 
that  imbecile  administration  were  on  this  occasion  filled  with  para- 
graphs about  sovereignty.  A  paltroon  may  boast  of  his  sovereign 
right  to  let  another  kick  him,  and  this  is  the  only  kind  of  sove- 
reignty shown  in  the  treaty  with  England.  But  those  daring  para- 
graphs, as  Timothy  Pickering  well  knows,  were  intended  for 
France,  without  whose  assistance,  in  men,  money,  and  ships,  Mr. 
Washington  would  have  cut  but  a  poor  figure  in  the  American 
war.     But  of  his  military  talents  1  shall  speak  hereafter. 

I  mean  not  to  enter  into  any  discussion  of  any  article  of  Jay's 
treaty ;  I  shall  speak  only  of  the  whole  of  it.  It  is  attempted  to  be 
justified  on  the  ground  of  its  not  being  a  violation  of  any  article  or 
articles  of  the  treaty  pre-existing  with  France.  But  the  sovereign 
right  of  explanation  does  not  lie  with  George  Washington  and  his 
man  Timothy ;  France,  on  her  part,  has,  at  least,  an  equal  right : 
and  when  nations  dispute,  it  is  not  so  much  about  words  as  about 
things. 

A  man,  such  as  the  world  calls  a  sharper,  as  versed  as  Jay  must 
be  supposed  to  be  in  the  quibbles  of  the  law.  may  find  a  way  to 


LETTER   TO    WASHINGTON.  25 

enter  into  engagements,  and  make  bargains,  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  cheat  some  other  party,  without  that  party  being  able,  as  tiie 
phrase  is,  to  lake  the  law  nf  him.  This  often  happens  in  tlie  caba- 
listical  circle  of  what  is  called  law.  But  when  this  is  attempted  to 
be  acted  on  the  national  scale  of  treaties,  it  is  too  despicable  to  be 
defended,  or  to  be  permitted  to  exist.  Yet  this  is  the  trick  upon 
which  Jay's  treaty  is  founded,  so  far  .is  it  has  relation  to  the  treaty 
pre-existing  with  France.  It  is  a  counter  treaty  to  that  treaty,  and 
perverts  all  the  great  articles  of  that  treaty  to  the  injury  of  France, 
and  makes  them  operate  as  a  bounty  to  England,  with  whom 
France  is  at  war.  The  Washington  administration  shows  great 
desire  that  the  treaty  between  France  and  the  United  States  be 
preserved.  Nobody  can  doubt  hs  sincerity  upon  this  matter.  There 
is  not  a  British  minister,  a  British  merchant,  or  a  British  agent,  or 
factor,  in  America,  that  does  not  anxiously  wish  the  same  thing. 
The  treaty  with  France,  serves  now  as  a  passport  to  supply  En- 
gland with  naval  stores,  and  other  articles  of  American  produce  ; 
whilst  the  same  articles,  when  coming  to  France,  are  made  contra- 
band, or  seizable,  by  Jay's  treaty  with  England.  The  treaty  with 
France  says,  that  neutral  shi]5s  make  neutral  property,  and  thereby 
gives  protection  to  English  property  on  board  American  ships  ; 
and  Jay's  treaty  delivers  up  French  property  on  board  American 
ships  to  be  seized  by  the  English.  It  is  too  paltry  to  talk  of  faith, 
of  national  honor,  and  of  the  preservation  of  treaties,  whilst  such  a 
barefaced  treachery  as  this  stares  the  world  in  the  face. 

The  VV^ashington  administration  may  save  itself  the  trouble  of 
proving  to  the  French  government  its  most  faithful  intentions  of 
preserving  the  treaty  with  France  ;  for  France  has  now  no  desire 
that  it  should  be  preserved  ;  she  had  nominated  an  envoy  extraor- 
dinary to  America,  to  make  Mr.  Washington  and  his  government  a 
present  of  the  treaty,  and  to  have  no  more  to  do  with  that,  or  with 
him.  It  was  at  the  same  time  otlficially  declared  to  the  American 
minister  at  Paris,  that  the  French  Republic  had  rather  have  the 
American  government  for  an  open  enemy  than  a  treacherous  friend. 
This,  sir,  with  the  internal  distractions  caused  in  America,  and  the 
loss  of  character  in  the  world,  is  the  eventful  crisis  alluded  to  in  the 
beginning  of  this  letter,  to  which  your  double  politics  have  brought 
the  aflairs  of  your  country.  It  is  time  that  the  eyes  of  America  be 
opened  upon  you. 

How  France  would  have  conducted  herself  towards  America, 

D 


26  LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON. 

and  American  commerce,  after  all  treaty  stipulations  had  ceased, 
and  under  the  sense  of  services  rendered  and  injuries  received,  I 
know  not.  It  is,  however,  an  unpleasant  reflection,  that  in  ail 
national  quarrels,  the  innocent,  and  even  the  friendly  part  of  the 
community,  become  involved  witli  the  culpable  and  the  unfriendly  ; 
and  as  the  accounts  that  arrived  from  America,  continued  to  mani- 
fest an  invariable  attachment,  in  the  general  mass  of  the  people,  to 
their  original  ally,  in  opposition  to  the  new  fangled  WashLngtou 
faction,  the  resolutions  that  had  been  taken  in  France  were  sus- 
pended. It  happened,  also,  fortunately  enough,  that  Governeui 
Morris  was  not  minister  at  this  time. 

There  is,  however,  one  point  that  yet  remains  in  embryo,  and 
which,  among  other  things,  serves  to  show  the  ignorance  of  Wash- 
ington treaty-makers,  and  their  inattention  to  pre-existing  treaties, 
when  they  were  employing  themselves  in  framing  or  ratifying  the 
new  treaty  with  England. 

The  second  article  of  the  treaty  of  commerce  between  the  Uni- 
ted States  and  France,  says,  "  The  most  Christian  King  and  the 
"  United  States,  engage  mutually  not  to  grant  any  particular  favor 
"  to  other  nations  in  respect  to  commerce  and  navigation,  that  shall 
"  not  immediately  become  common  to  the  other  party,  who  shall 
"enjo}'  the  same  favor  freely,  if  the  concession  was  freely  made, 
"  or  on  allowing  the  same  compensation  if  the  concession  was  con- 
"  ditional." 

All  the  concessions,  therefore,  made  to  England  by  Jay's  treaty, 
are,  through  the  medium  of  this  second  article  in  the  pre-existing 
treaty,  made  to  France,  and  become  engrafted  into  the  treaty  with 
France,  and  can  be  exercised  by  her  as  a  matter  of  right,  the  same 
as  by  England. 

Jay's  treaty  makes  a  concession  to  England,  and  that  uncondi- 
tionally, of  seizing  naval  stores  in  American  ships,  and  condemning 
them  as  contraband.  It  makes  also  a  concession  to  England  to 
seize  provisions  and  other  articles  in  American  ships.  Other  arti- 
cles, are  all  other  articles  ;  and  none  but  an  ignoramus,  or  some- 
thing worse,  would  have  put  such  a  plirase  into  a  treaty.  The  con- 
dition annexed  to  this  case  is,  that  the  provisions  and  other  articles 
so  seized,  are  to  be  paid  for  at  a  price  to  be  agreed  upon.  Mr. 
Washington,  as  president,  ratified  this  treaty  after  he  knew  tho 
British  government  had  recommenced  an  indiscriminate  seizure  of 
provisions,  and  of  all  other  articles  in  American  ships  :  cind  it  is 


LETTEB  TO  WASHINGTON.  27 

now  known  that  those  seizures  were  made  to  fit  out  the  expedition 
going  to  Quiberon  Bay,  and  it  was  known  beforehand  that  they 
would  be  made.  The  evidence  goes  also  a  good  way  to  prove  that 
Jay  and  Grenville  understood  each  other  upon  that  subject.  Mr. 
Pinkney,  when  he  passed  through  France  in  his  way  to  Spain, 
spoke  of  the  recommencement  of  the  seizures  as  a  thing  that  would 
take  place.  The  French  government  had  by  some  means  received 
information  from  London  to  the  same  purpose,  with  the  addition, 
that  the  recommencement  of  the  seizures  would  cause  no  misunder- 
standing between  the  British  and  American  governments.  Gren- 
ville, in  defending  himself  against  the  opposition  in  Parliament,  on 
account  of  the  scarcity  of  corn,  said  (see  his  speech  at  the  opening 
of  the  parliament  that  met  October  29,  1795)  that  the  supplies  for 
the  Quiberon  expedition  were  furnished  out  of  the  American  ships, 
and  all  the  accounts  received  at  that  time  from  England  stated  that 
those  seizures  were  made  under  the  treaty.  After  the  supplies  for 
the  Quiberon  expedition  had  been  procured,  and  the  expected  suc- 
cess had  failed,  the  seizures  were  countermanded ;  and  had  the 
French  seized  provision  vessels  going  to  England,  it  is  probable 
that  the  Quiberon  expedition  could  not  have  been  attempted. 

In  one  point  of  view,  the  treaty  with  England  operates  as  a  loan 
to  the  English  government.  It  gives  permission  to  that  govern- 
ment to  take  American  property  at  sea,  to  any  amount,  and  pay  for 
it  when  it  suits  her ;  and,  besides  this,  the  treaty  is  in  every  point 
of  view  a  surrender  of  the  rights  of  American  commerce  and  navi- 
gation, and  a  refusal  to  France  of  the  rights  of  neutrality.  The 
American  flag  is  not  now  a  neutral  flag  to  France  ;  Jay's  treaty  of 
surrender  gives  a  monopoly  of  it  to  England. 

On  the  contrary,  the  treaty  of  commerce  between  America  and 
France  was  formed  on  the  most  liberal  principles,  and  calculated  to 
give  the  greatest  encouragement  to  the  infant  commerce  of  America. 
France  was  neither  a  carrier  nor  an  exporter  of  naval  stores,  or  of 
provisions:  those  articles  belonged  wholly  to  America;  and  they 
had  all  the  protection  in  that  treaty  which  a  treaty  can  give.  But 
so  much  has  that  treaty  been  perverted,  that  the  liberality  of  it  on 
the  part  of  France  has  served  to  encourage  Jay  to  form  a  counter- 
treaty  with  England  ;  for  he  must  have  supposed  the  hands  of 
France  tied  up  by  her  treaty  with  America,  when  he  was  makmg 
such  large  concessions  in  favor  of  England.  The  injury  which  Mr. 
Washington's  administration  has  done  to  the  character,  as  well  as  to 


23 


LETTER   TO    WASHIXGTON. 


the  commnrce,  of  America,  is  too  great  to  be  repaired  by  him.  Fo- 
reign nations  will  be  shy  of  making  treaties  with  a  government  that 
has  given  the  Aiilhless  example  of  perverting  the  liberality  of  a 
former  treaty  to  the  injury  of  the  party  with  whom  it  was  made. 

In  what  a  fraudulent  light  must  Mr.  Washington's  character  ap- 
pear in  the  world,  when  his  declarations  and  his  conduct  are  com- 
pared together  !  Here  follows  the  letter  he  wrote  to  the  Committee 
of  Public  Safety,  while  Jay  was  negociating  in  profound  secrecy 
this  treacherous  treaty : 

"  George  Washington,  President  of  the  United  States  of  Ame- 
"  rica,  to  the  representatives  of  the  French  people,  members 
"  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  of  the  French  re- 
^^  public,  the  great  and  good  friend  and  ally  of  the  United 
"  States. 

"  On  the  intimation  of  the  wish  of  the  French  republic  that  a  new 
"  minister  should  be  sent  from  the  United  States,  I  resolved  to 
"manifest  my  sense  of  the  readiness  with  which  m?/  request  was 
"  fulfilled,  (that  of  recalling  Genet,)  by  immediately  fulfilling  the 
"  request  of  your  government,  (that  of  recalling  Morris.) 

"  It  was  some  time  before  a  character  could  be  obtained  worthy 
"of the  high  office  of  expressing  the  attachment  of  the  United 
"  States  to  the  happiness  of  our  nlVies,  and  draioing  closer  the  bonds 
"  of  our  friendship.  I  have  now  made  choice  of  James  Monroe, 
"  one  of  our  distinguished  citizens,  to  reside  near  the  French  re- 
"  public,  in  quality  of  minister  plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States 
"  of  America.  He  is  instructed  to  bear  to  you  our  sincere  solici- 
"  tilde  for  your  welfare,  and  to  cidtivate  ivith  zeal  the  cordiality  so 
"  happily  sid)sisting  between  us.  From  a  knowledge  of  his  fidelity, 
"probity,  and  good  conduct,  I  have  entire  confidence  that  he  will 
"  render  himself  acceptable  to  you,  and  give  eflfect  to  your  desire 
"  of  preserving  and  advanting,  on  all  occasions,  the  interest  and 
"  connexion  of  the  two  nations.  I  beseech  you,  therefore,  to  jjive 
"  full  credence  to  whatever  he  sh'iU  say  to  you  on  the  part  of  the 
"  United  States,  and  most  of  all,  when  he  shall  assure  a'ou  that  your 
"  prosperity  is  an  object  of  our  afiection.  And  I  pray  God  to  have 
*'  the  French  republic  in  his  holy  keeping. 

«  G.  WASHINGTON." 


LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON.  851 

Was  it  by  entering  into  a  treaty  with  England  to  surrender 
French  property  on  board  American  ships  to  be  seized  by  tlie  En- 
gHsh,  while  English  property  on  board  American  ships  was  declared 
by  the  French  treaty  not  to  be  seizable,  that  the  bonds  of  friend- 
ship between  America  and  France  were  to  be  drawn  closer?  Was 
it  by  declaring  naval  stores  contraband  when  coming  to  France, 
whilst  by  the  French  treaty  they  wore  not  contraband  when  going 
to  England,  that  the  connexion  between  France  and  America  was 
to  be  advanced?  Was  it  by  opening  the  American  ports  to  the 
British  navy  in  the  presentwar,  from  which  ports  the  same  navy  had 
been  expelled  by  the  aid  solicited  from  France  in  the  American  war 
(and  that  aid  gratuitously  given)  that  the  gratitude  of  America  was 
to  be  shown,  and  the  solicitude  spoken  of  in  the  letter  demon- 
strated ■? 

As  the  letter  was  addressed  to  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety, 
Mr.  Washington  did  not  expect  it  would  get  abroad  in  the  world, 
or  be  seen  by  any  other  eye  than  that  of  Robespierre,  or  be  heard 
by  any  other  ear  than  that  of  the  Committee;  that  it  would  pass  as 
a  whisper  across  the  Atlantic  from  one  dark  chamber  to  the  other, 
and  there  terminate.  It  was  calculated  to  remove  from  the  mind 
of  the  committee  all  suspicion  upon  Jay's  mission  to  England,  and 
in  this  point  of  view  it  was  suited  to  the  circumstances  of  the  move- 
ment then  passing  ;  but  as  the  event  of  that  mission  has  proved  the 
letter  to  be  hypocritical,  it  serves  no  other  purpose  of  the  present 
moment  than  to  show  that  the  writer  is  not  to  be  credited.  Two 
circumstances  serve  to  make  the  reading  of  the  letter  necessary 
in  the  Convention :  the  one  was,  that  they  who  succeeded  on  the 
fall  of  Robespierre,  found  it  most  proper  to  act  with  publicity ;  the 
other,  to  extinguish  the  suspicions  which  the  strange  conduct  of 
Morris  had  occasioned  in  France. 

AVhen  the  British  treaty  and  the  ratification  of  it  by  Mr.  Wash- 
ington were  known  in  France,  all  further  declarations  from  him  of 
his  good  disposition  as  an  ally  and  a  friend,  passed  for  so  many 
cyphers ;  but  still  it  appeared  necessary  to  him  to  keep  up  the 
farce  of  declarations.  It  is  stipulated  in  the  British  treaty,  that 
commissioners  are  to  report  at  the  end  of  two  years,  on  the  case 
of  neutral  ships  making  neutral  property.  In  the  mean  time, 
neutral  ships  do  not  make  neutral  property  according  to  the  British 
treaty,  and  they  do  according  to  the  French  treaty.  The  preserva- 
tion, therefore,  of  the  French  treaty  became  of  great  importance  to 


30  LETTER   TO    WASHINGTON. 

England,  as  by  that  means  she  can  employ  American  ships  as  car- 
riers while  the  same  advantage  is  denied  to  France.  Whether  the 
French  treat}"^  could  exist  as  a  matter  of  right  after  this  clandestine 
perversion  of  it,  could  not  but  give  some  apprehensions  to  the  parti- 
zans  of  the  British  treaty,  and  it  became  necessary  to  them  to  make 
up  by  fine  words  what  was  wanting  in  good  actions. 

An  opportunity  offered  to  that  purpose.  The  Convention,  on  the 
public  reception  of  Mr.  Monroe,  ordered  the  American  flag  and  the 
French  flag  to  be  displayed  unitedly  in  the  hall  of  the  Convention. 
Mr.  Monroe  made  a  present  of  an  American  flag  for  the  purpose. 
The  Convention  returned  this  compliment,  by  sending  a  French 
flag  to  America,  to  be  presented  by  their  minister,  Mr.  Adet,  to  the 
American  government.  This  resolution  passed  long  before  Jay's 
treaty  was  known  or  suspected:  it  passed  in  the  days  of  confi- 
dence; but  the  flag  was  not  presented  by  Mr.  Adet  till  several 
months  after  the  treaty  had  been  ratified.  Mr.  Washington  made 
this  the  occasion  of  saying  some  fine  things  to  the  French  minister; 
and  the  better  to  get  himself  into  tune  to  do  this,  he  began  by  say- 
ing the  finest  things  of  himself. 

"  Born,  sir,"  said  he,  "  in  a  land  of  liberty  ;  having  learned  its 
•'value;  having  engaged  in  a  perilous  conflict  to  defend  it ;  having, 
"in  a  word,  devoted  the  best  years  of  my  life  to  secure  its  perma- 
"nent  establishment  in  my  own  country  ;  mi/  anxious  recollections, 
"my  sympathetic  feelings,  and  mt/  best  wishes,  are  irresistibly  ex- 
"  cited,  whenever,  in  any  country,  I  see  an  oppressed  people  un- 
"furl  the  banner  of  freedom."  Mr.  Washington,  having  expended 
so  many  fine  phrases  upon  himself,  was  obliged  to  invent  a  new 
one  for  the  French,  and  he  calls  them  "  Wonderful  people  !" 
The  coalesced  powers  acknowledged  as  much. 

It  is  laughable  to  hear  Mr.  Washington  talk  of  his  sympathetic 
feelings,  who  has  always  been  remarked,  even  among  his  friends, 
for  not  having  any.  He  has,  however,  given  no  proofs  of  any  to 
me.  As  to  the  pompous  encomiums  he  so  liberally  pays  to  himself 
on  the  score  of  the  American  revolution,  the  propriety  of  them  may 
be  questioned;  and  since  he  has  forced  them  so  much  into  notice, 
it  is  fair  to  examine  his  pretensions. 

A  stranger  might  be  led  to  suppose,  from  the  egotism  with  which 
Mr.  Washington  speaks,  that  himself,  and  himself  only,  had  gene- 
rated, conducted,  completed,  established,  the  revolution.  In  fine, 
that  it  was  all  his  own  doing. 


LETTER   TO  WASHINGTON. 


31 


In  the  first  place,  as  to  the  political  part,  he  had  no  share  in  it ; 
and,  therefore,  the  whole  oi  that  is  out  of  the  question  with  respect 
to  him.  There  remains,  then,  only  the  military  part ;  and  it  would 
have  been  prudent  in  Mr.  Washington  not  to  have  awakened  in- 
quiry upon  that  subject.  Fame  then  was  cheap  ;  he  enjoyed  it 
cheaply  ;  and  nobody  was  disposed  to  take  away  the  laurels  that, 
whether  they  were  acquired  or  not,  had  been  given. 

Mr.  Washington's  merit  consisted  in  constancy.  But  constancy 
was  the  common  virtue  of  the  revolution.  Who  was  there  that  was 
inconstant?  I  know  but  of  one  military  defection,  that  of  Arnold, 
and  I  know  of  no  political  defection,  among  those  who  made  them- 
selves eminent  when  the  revolution  was  formed  by  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  Even  Silas  Deane,  though  he  attempted  to  de- 
fraud, did  not  betray. 

But  when  we  speak  of  military  character,  something  more  is  to 
be  understood  than  constancy ;  and  something  more  ought  to  be 
understood  than  the  Fabian  system  of  doing  nothing.  The  nothing 
part  can  be  done  by  any  body.  Old  Mrs.  Thompson,  the  house- 
keeper of  head  quarters,  (who  threatened  to  make  the  sun  and  the 
wind  shine  through  Rivington  of  New  York,)  could  have  done  it  as 
well  as  Mr.  Washingron.  Deborah  would  have  been  as  good  as 
Barak. 

Mr.  Washington  had  the  nominal  rank  of  commander-in-chief, 
but  he  was  not  so  in  fact.  He  had,  in  reality,  only  a  separate  com- 
mand. He  had  no  control  over,  or  direction  of,  the  army  to  the 
northward  under  Gates,  that  captured  Burgoyne  ;  or  of  that  to  the 
south  under  Greene,  that  recovered  the  southern  states.*  The  no- 
minal rank,  however,  of  commander-in-chief,  served  to  throw  upon 
him  the  lustre  of  those  actions,  and  to  make  him  appear  as  the  soul 
and  centre  of  all  military  operations  in  America. 

He  commenced  his  command  June,  1775,  during  the  time  the 
Massachusetts  army  lay  before  Boston,  and  after  the  affair  of  Bun- 
ker's Hill.  The  commencement  of  his  command  was  the  com- 
mencement of  inactivity.  Nothing  was  afterwards  done,  or  at- 
tempted to  be  done,  during  the  nine  months  he  remained  before 
Boston.  If  we  may  judge  from  the  resistance  made  at  Concord,  and 
afterwards  at  Bunker's  Hill,  there  was  a  spirit  of  enterprise  at  tliat 
time,  which  the  presence  of  Mr.  Washington  chilled  into   cold  de- 

*  See  Mr.  Winterbotham's  valuable  History  of  America,  lately  pub. 
ijshed. 


3^  LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON. 

fence.  By  the  advantage  of  a  good  exterior  he  attracts  respect, 
which  his  habitual  silence  tends  to  preserve ;  but  he  has  not  the 
talent  of  inspiring  ardor  in  an  army.  The  enemy  removed  from 
Boston  to  Halifax,  in  March,  1776,  to  wait  for  reinforcements  from 
Europe,  and  to  take  a  more  advantageous  position  at  New  York. 

The  inactivity  of  the  campaign  of  1775,  on  the  part  of  General 
Washington,  when  the  enemy  had  a  less  force  than  in  any  other 
future  period  of  the  war,  and  the  injudicious  choice  of  positions 
taken  by  him  jn  the  campaign  of  1776,  when  the  enemy  had  its 
greatest  force,  necessarily  produced  the  losses  and  misfortunes  that 
marked  that  gloomy  campaign.  The  positions  taken  were  either 
islands  or  necks  of  land.  In  the  former,  the  enemy,  by  the  aid  of 
their  sliijis,  could  bring  their  whole  force  against  a  part  of  General 
Washington's,  as  in  the  affair  of  Long  Island  ;  and  in  the  latter,  he 
might  be  shut  up  as  in  the  bottom  of  a  bag.  This  had  nearly  been 
the  case  at  New  York,  and  it  was  so  in  part ;  it  was  actually  the 
case  at  Fort  Washington  ;  and  it  would  have  been  the  case  at  Fort 
Lee,  if  General  Greene  had  not  moved  precipitately  off,  leaving 
every  thing  behind,  and  by  gaining  Hackinsuch  bridge,  got  out  of 
the  bag  of  Bergen  Neck.  How  far  Mr.  Washington,  as  General,  is 
blameable  for  these  matters,  I  am  not  undertaking  to  determine  ; 
but  they  are  evidently  defects  in  military  geography.  The  success- 
ful skirmishes  at  the  close  of  that  campaign,  (matters  that  would 
scarcely  be  noticed  in  a  better  state  of  things,)  make  the  brilliant 
exploits  of  General  Washington's  seven  campaigns.  No  wonder 
we  see  so  much  pusillanimity  in  the  President,  Avhen  we  see  so 
little  enterprise  in  the  General ! 

The  campaign  of  1777  became  famous,  not  by  any  thing  on  the 
part  of  General  Washington,  but  by  the  capture  of  General  Bur- 
goyne,  and  the  army  under  his  command,  by  the  northern  army  at 
Saratoga,  under  General  Gates.  So  totally  distinct  and  unconnect- 
ed were  the  two  armies  of  Washington  and  Gates,  and  so  indepen- 
dent was  the  latter  of  the  authority  of  the  nominal  commander-in- 
chief,  that  the  two  Generals  did  not  so  much  as  correspond,  and  it 
was  only  by  a  letter  of  General  (since  Governor)  Clinton,  that 
General  Washington  was  informed  of  that  event.  The  British  took 
possession  of  Philadelphia  this  year,  which  they  evacuated  the  next, 
just  time  enough  to  save  their  heavy  baggage  and  fleet  of  transports 
from  capture  by  the  French  Admiral  D'Estaign,  who  arrived  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Delaware  soon  after. 


LETTER  TO  WASUINGTON.  33 

The  capture  of  Burgoyne  gave  an  eclat  in  Europe  to  the  Ame- 
rican arms,  and  facilitated  the  alliance  with  France.  The  eclat, 
however,  was  not  kept  up  hy  any  thing  on  the  part  of  General 
Washington.  The  same  unfortunate  languor  that  marked  his  en- 
trance into  the  field,  continued  always.  Discontent  hegan  to  pre- 
vail strongly  against  him,  and  a  party  was  formed  in  Congress, 
whilst  sitting  at  Yorktown,  in  Pennsylvania,  for  removing  him  from 
the  command  of  the  army.  The  hope,  however,  of  better  times, 
the  news  of  the  alliance  with  France,  and  the  unwillingness  of  show- 
ing discontent,  dissipated  the  matter. 

Nothing  was  done  in  the  campaign  of  1778,  1779,  1780,  in  the 
part  where  General  Washington  commanded,  except  the  taking 
Stony  Point  by  General  Wayne.  The  southern  states  in  the  moan 
time  were  overrun  by  the  enemy.  They  were  afterwards  recover- 
ed by  General  Greene,  who  had  in  a  very  great  measure  created 
the  army  that  accomplished  that  recovery.  In  all  this  General 
AVashington  had  no  share.  The  Fabian  system  of  war,  followed  by 
him,  began  now  to  unfold  itself  with  all  its  evils  ;  for  what  is  Fabian 
war  without  Fabian  means  to  support  it  ]  The  finances  of  Con- 
gress depending  wholly  on  emissions  of  paper  money,  were  ex- 
hausted. Its  credit  was  gone.  The  continental  treasury  was  not 
able  to  pay  the  expense  of  a  brigade  of  wagons  to  transport  the 
necessary  stores  to  the  army,  and  yet  the  sole  object,  the  establish- 
ment of  the  revolution,  was  a  thing  of  remote  distance.  The  time 
I  am  now  speaking  of  is  in  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1780. 

■  In  this  situation  of  things  it  was  found  not  only  expedient,  but 
absolutely  necessary, for  Congress  to  state  the  whole  case  to  its  ally. 
I  know  more  of  this  matter,  (before  it  came  into  Congress,  or  was 
known  to  General  Washington,)  of  its  progress,  and  its  issue,  than 
I  choose  to  state  in  this  letter.  Colonel  John  Laurens  was  sent  to 
France,  as  an  envoy  extraordinary  on  this  occasion,  and  by  a  pri- 
vate agreement  between  him  and  me,  I  accompanied  him.  We 
sailed  from  Boston  in  the  Alliance  frigate,  February  11th,  1781. 
France  had  already  done  much  in  accepting  and  payinsf  bills  drawn 
by  Congress  ;  she  was  now  called  upon  to  do  more.  The  event  of 
Colonel  Laurens's  mission,  with  the  aid  of  the  venerable  minister, 
Franklin,  was,  that  France  gave  in  money,  as  a  present,  six  millions 
of  livres,  and  ten  millions  more  as  a  loan,  and  agreed  to  send  a  fleet 
of  not  less  than  thirty  sail  of  the  line,  at  her  own  expense,  as  an 
aid  to  America.     Colonel  Laurens  and  myself  returned  from  Brest 

E 


34  LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON. 

the  first  of  June  following,  taking  with  us  two  millions  and  a  half  of 
livres  (upwards  of  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling)  of  the 
money  given,  and  convoying  two  ships  with  stores. 

We  arrived  at  Boston  the  25th  of  August  following.  De  Grasse 
arrived  with  the  French  fleet  in  the  Chesapeake  at  the  same  time, 
and  was  afterwards  joined  by  that  of  Barras,  making  thirty-one  sail 
of  the  line.  The  money  was  transported  in  wagons  from  Boston 
to  the  Bank  of  Philadelphia,  of  which  Mi*.  Thomas  Willing,  who  has 
since  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  petitioners  in  favor  of  the 
British  treaty,  was  then  president.  And  it  Avas  by  the  aid  of  this 
money,  and  this  fleet,  and  of  Rochambeau's  army,  that  Cornwallis 
was  taken ;  the  laurels  of  which  have  been  unjustly  given  to  Mr. 
Washington.  His  merit  in  that  afl'air  was  no  more  than  that  of  any 
other  American  ofiicer. 

1  have  had,  and  still  have,  as  much  pride  in  the  American  revolu- 
tion as  any  man,  or  as  Mr.  Washington  has  a  right  to  have  ;  but  that 
pride  has  never  made  me  forgetful  whence  the  great  aid  came  that 
completed  the  business.  Foreign  aid  (that  of  France)  was  calculated 
upon  at  the  commencement  of  the  revolution.  It  is  one  of  the  sub- 
jects treated  of  in  the  pamphlet  Common  Sense,  but  as  a  matter 
that  could  not  be  hoped  for,  unless  independence  was  declared.  The 
aid,  however,  was  greater  than  could  have  been  expected. 

It  is  as  well  the  ingratitude  as  the  pusillanimity  of  Mr.  Washing- 
ton, and  the  Washington  faction,  that  has  brought  upon  America 
the  loss  of  character  she  now  suffers  in  the  world,  and  the  numer- 
ous evils  her  commerce  has  undergone,  and  to  which  it  is  still  ex- 
posed. The  British  ministry  soon  found  out  what  sort  of  men  they 
had  to  deal  with,  and  they  dealt  with  them  accordingly  ;  and  if 
further  explanation  was  wanting,  it  has  been  fully  given  since,  in 
the  snivelling  address  of  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce  to 
the  president,  and  in  that  of  sundry  merchants  of  Philadelphia, 
which  was  not  much  better. 

When  the  revolution  of  America  was  finally  established  by  the 
termination  of  the  war,  the  world  gave  her  credit  for  great  charac- 
ter ;  and  she  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  stand  firm  upon  that  ground. 
The  British  ministry  had  their  hands  too  full  of  trouble  to  have  pro- 
voked a  rupture  with  her,  had  she  shown  a  proper  resolution  to  de- 
fend her  rights:  but  encouraged  as  they  were  by  the  submissive 
character  of  the  American  administration,  they  proceeded  from  in- 
sult to  insult,  till  none  more  were  left  to  be  offered.    The  proposals 


LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON.  35 

made  by  Sweden  and  Denmark  to  the  American  government,  were 
disreffardcd.  I  know  not  if  so  much  as  an  answer  has  been  return- 
ed to  them.  The  minister  penitent iary,  (as  some  of  the  British 
prints  called  him,)  Mr.  Jay,  was  sent  on  a  pilgrimage  to  London, 
to  make  all  up  by  penance  and  petition.  In  the  mean  time  the 
lengthy  and  drowsy  writer  of  the  pieces  signed  Camillus  held  him- 
self in  reserve  to  vindicate  every  thing ;  and  to  sound  in  America 
the  tocsin  of  terror  upon  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  England. 
Her  resources,  says  he,  are  greater  than  those  of  all  the  other  pow- 
ers. This  man  is  so  intoxicated  with  fear  and  finance,  that  he 
knows  not  the  difference  heXwecn  plus  and  minus — between  a  hun- 
dred pounds  in  hand,  and  a  hundred  pounds  worse  than  nothing. 

The  commerce  of  America,  so  far  as  it  had  been  established,  by 
all  the  treaties  that  had  been  formed  prior  to  that  by  Jay,  was  free, 
and  the  principles  upon  which  it  was  established  were  good.  That 
ground  ought  never  to  have  been  departed  from.  It  was  the  justi- 
fiable ground  of  right ;  and  no  temporary  difficulties  ought  to  have 
induced  an  abandonment  of  it.  The  case  is  now  otherwise.  The 
ground,  the  scene,  the  pretensions,  the  every  thing  is  changed.  The 
commerce  of  America  is,  by  Jay's  treaty,  put  under  foreign  domi- 
nion. Tiie  sea  is  not  free  for  her.  Her  right  to  navigate  it  is  re- 
duced to  the  right  of  escaping  ;  that  is,  until  some  ship  of  England 
or  France  stops  her  vessels,  and  carries  them  into  port.  Every 
article  of  American  produce,  whether  from  the  sea  or  the  sand, 
fish,  flesh,  vegetable,  or  manufacture,  is,  by  Jay's  treaty,  made 
either  contraband  or  seizable.  Nothing  is  exempt.  In  all  other 
treaties  of  commerce,  the  article  which  enumerates  the  contraband 
articles,  such  as  fire  arms,  gunpowder,  &.C.,  is  followed  by  another, 
which  enumerates  the  articles  not  contraband  ;  but  it  is  not  so  in 
Jay's  treaty.  There  is  no  exempting  article.  Its  olace  is  supplied 
by  the  article  for  seizing  and  carrying  into  port :  and  the  sweeping 
phrase  of  pi-ovisions  and  other  articles  includes  every  thing. 
There  never  was  such  a  base  and  servile  treaty  of  surrender,  since 
treaties  began  to  exist. 

This  is  the  ground  upon  which  America  now  stands.  All  her 
rights  of  commerce  and  navigation  are  to  begin  anew,  and  that  with 
loss  of  character  to  begin  with.  If  there  is  sense  enough  left  in  the 
heart  to  call  a  blush  into  the  cheek,  the  Washington  administration 
must  be  ashamed  to  appear.  And  as  to  you.  Sir,  treacherous  in 
private  friendship  (for  so  you  have  been  to  me,  and  that  in  the  day 


36  LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON. 

of  danger)  and  a  hypocrite  in  public  life,  the  world  will  be  puzzled 
to  decide,  whether  you  are  an  APOSTATE  or  an  IMPOSTOR  ? 
Whether  you  have  abandoned  good  principles,  or  whether  you  ever 
had  any  ? 

"THOMAS    PAINE." 


APPEIVDIX 


MEMORIAL 

OF 

THOMAS    PAINE    TO    MR.    MONROE, 

ALLUDED  TO  IN  THE  FOREGOING  LETTER. 


Luxembourg,  September  10,  1794. 

I  ADDRESS  this  memorial  to  you,  in  consequence  of  a  letter  I  re- 
ceived from  a  friend  18th  Fructidor,  (September  14th,)  in  which  he 
says,  "  Mr.  Monroe  has  told  me,  that  he  has  no  orders  (meaning 
"  from  the  Congress)  respecting  you ;  but  I  am  sure  he  will  leave 
"  nothing  undone  to  liberate  you.  But,  from  what  I  can  learn,  from 
"  all  the  late  Americans,  you  are  not  considered  either  by  the  go- 
"  vernment,  or  by  the  individuals,  as  an  American  citizen.  You 
**  have  been  made  a  French  citizen,  which  you  have  accepted, 
"  and  you  have  further  made  yourself  a  servant  of  the  French  re- 
"  public  ;  and,  therefore,  it  would  be  out  of  character  for  an  Ame- 
"  rican  minister  to  interfere  in  their  internal  concerns.  You  must 
"  therefore  either  be  liberated  out  of  compliance  to  America,  or 
*'  stand  your  trial,  which  you  have  a  right  to  demand." 

This  information  was  so  unexpected  by  me,  that  I  am  at  a  loss 
how  to  answer  it.  I  know  not  on  what  principle  it  originates ; 
whether  from  an  idea  that  I  had  voluntarily  abandoned  my  citizen- 
ship of  America  for  that  of  France,  or  from  any  article  of  the  Ame- 
rican constitution  applied  to  me.  The  first  is  untrue  with  respect 
to  any  intention  on  my  part ;  and  the  second  is  without  founda- 
tion, as  I  shall  show  in  the  course  of  this  memorial. 

The  idea  of  conferring  honor  of  citizenship  upon  foreigners,  who 
had  distinguished  themselves  in  propagating  the  principles  of  liberty 
and  humanity,  in  opposition  to  despotism,  war,  and  bloodshed,  was 
first  proposed  by  me  to  La  Fayette,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
French  revolution,  when   his  heart   appeared  to  be  warmed  by 


those  principles.  My  motive  in  making  tiiis  proposal,  was  to  ren- 
der the  people  of  different  nations  more  fraternal  than  they  had 
been,  or  then  were.  I  observed  that  almost  every  branch  of  science 
had  possessed  itself  of  the  exercise  of  this  right,  so  flir  as  it  regarded 
its  institution.  Most  of  the  academies  and  societies  in  Europe,  and 
also  those  of  America,  conferred  the  rank  of  honorary  member, 
upon  foreigners  eminent  in  knowledge,  and  made  them,  in  fact, 
citizens  of  their  literary  or  scientific  republic  ;  without  affecting  or 
anywise  diminishing  their  rights  of  citizenship  in  their  own  country 
or  in  other  societies :  and  why  the  science  of  government  should 
not  have  the  same  advantage,  or  why  the  people  in  one  nation 
should  not,  by  their  representatives,  exercise  the  right  of  conferring 
the  honor  of  citizenship  upon  individuals  eminent  in  another  nation, 
without  affecting  their  rights  of  citizenship,  is  a  problem  yet  to  be 
solved. 

I  now  proceed  to  remark  on  that  part  of  the  letter,  in  which  the 
writer  says,  that,  "/rom  all  he  can  learn  from  the  late  Americans^ 
"  /  am  not  considered  in  America^  either  by  the  government  or  by 
"  the  individuals,  as  an  American  citizen." 

In  the  first  place  I  wish  to  ask,  what  is  here  meant  by  the  go- 
vernment of  America  ?  The  members  who  compose  the  govern- 
ment, are  only  individuals  when  in  conversation,  and  who,  most 
probably,  hold  very  different  opinions  upon  the  subject.  Have 
Congress  as  a  body  made  any  declaration  respecting  me,  that  they 
now  no  longer  consider  me  as  a  citizen?  If  ihey  have  not,  any 
thing  they  otherwise  say,  is  no  more  than  the  opinion  of  individu- 
als, and  consequently  is  not  legal  authority,  or  anywise  sufficient 
authority  to  deprive  any  man  of  his  citizenship.  Besides,  whether 
a  man  has  forfeited  his  rights  of  citizenship,  is  a  question  not  deter- 
minable by  Congress,  but  by  a  court  of  judicature,  and  a  jury  ;  and 
must  depend  upon  evidence,  and  the  application  of  some  law  or 
article  of  the  constitution  to  the  case.  No  such  proceeding  has  yet 
been  had,  and  consequently  I  remain  a  citizen  until  it  be  had,  be 
that  decision  what  it  may  ;  for  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  sus- 
pension of  rights  in  the  interim. 

I  am  very  well  aware,  and  always  was,  of  the  article  of  the  con- 
stitution which  says,  as  nearly  as  I  can  recollect  the  words,  that 
"  any  citizen  of  the  United  States,  who  shall  accept  any  title,  place, 
"  or  office,  from  any  foreign  king,  prince,  or  state,  shall  forfeit  and 
"  lose  his  right  of  citizenship  of  the  United  States." 


Had  the  article  said,  that  any  citizen  of  the  United  States,  who 
shall  be  a  member  of  any  foreign  convention,  for  the  purpose  of 
forming  a  free  constitution,  shall  forfeit  and  lose  the  right  of  citi- 
zenship of  the  United  States,  the  article  had  been  directly  applica- 
ble to  me ;  but  the  idea  of  such  an  article  never  could  have  entered 
the  mind  of  the  American  convention,  and  the  present  article  is 
altogether  foreign  to  the  case  with  respect  to  me.  It  supposes  a 
government  in  active  existence,  and  not  a  government  dissolved  ; 
and  it  supposes  a  citizen  of  America,  accepting  titles  and  offices 
under  that  government,  and  not  a  citizen  of  America,  who  gives 
his  assistance  in  a  convention,  chosen  by  the  people,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  forming  a  government  de  novo,  founded  on  their  authority. 

The  late  constitution  and  government  of  France  was  dissolved 
the  10th  of  August,  1792.  The  national  legislative  assembly  then 
in  being,  supposed  itself  without  sufficient  authority  to  continue  its 
sittings,  and  it  proposed  to  the  departments  to  elect,  not  another 
legislative  assembly,  but  a  convention  for  the  express  purpose  of 
forming  a  new  constitution.  When  the  assembly  were  discoursing 
on  this  matter,  some  of  the  members  said,  that  they  wished  to  gaia 
all  the  assistance  possible  upon  the  subject  of  free  constitutions  ;  and 
expressed  a  wish  to  elect  and  invite  foreigners  of  any  nation  to  the 
convention,  who  had  distinguished  themselves  in  defending,  explain- 
ing, and  propagating  the  principles  of  liberty.  It  was  on  this  occa- 
sion that  my  name  was  mentioned  in  the  assembly.  After  this,  a 
deputation  from  a  body  of  the  French  people,  in  order  to  remove 
any  objection  that  might  be  made  against  my  assisting  at  the  pro- 
posed convention,  requested  the  assembly,  as  their  representatives, 
to  give  me  the  title  of  French  Citizen  ;  after  which,  I  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  French  convention,  in  four  different  departments, 
as  is  already  known. 

The  case,  therefore,  is,  that  I  accepted  nothing  from  any  king, 
prince,  or  state  ;  or  from  any  government:  for  France  was  without 
any  government,  except  what  arose  from  common  consent,  and  the 
necessity  of  the  case.  Neither  did  "  /  make  myself  a  servant  of 
the  French  republic,''''  as  the  letter  alluded  to  expresses  ;  for  at 
that  time  France  was  no  republic,  not  even  in  name.  She  was 
altogether  a  people  in  a  state  of  revolution. 

It  was  not  until  the  convention  met,  that  France  was  declared  a 
republic,  and  monarchy  abolished ;  soon  after  which,  a  committee 
was  elected,  of  which  I  was  a  member,  to  form  a  constitution,  which 


40  APPENDIX. 

was  presented  to  the  convention  the  loth  and  16th  of  February 
following,  but  was  not  to  be  taken  into  consideration  till  after  the 
expiration  of  two  months,  and  if  approved  of  by  the  convention, 
was  then  to  be  referred  to  the  people  for  their  acceptance,  with 
such  additions  or  amendments  as  the  convention  should  make. 

In  thus  employing  myself  upon  the  formation  of  a  constitution,  I 
certainly  did  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  American  constitution. 
I  took  no  oath  of  allegiance  to  France,  or  any  other  oath  whatever. 
I  considered  the  citizenship  they  had  presented  me,  as  an  honorary 
mark  of  respect  paid  to  me  not  only  as  a  friend  to  liberty,  but  as 
an  American  citizen.  My  acceptance  of  that,  or  the  deputyship, 
not  conferred  on  me  by  any  king,  prince,  or  state,  but  by  a  people 
in  a  state  of  revolution,  and  contending  for  liberty,  required  no 
transfer  of  my  allegiance,  or  of  my  citizenship,  from  America  to 
France.  There  I  was  a  real  citizen,  paying  taxes  ;  here,  I  was  a 
voluntary  friend,  employing  myself  on  a  temporary  service.  Every 
American  in  Paris  knew  that  it  was  my  constant  intention  to  return 
to  America,  as  soon  as  a  constitution  should  be  established,  and 
that  I  anxiously  waited  for  that  event. 

I  ever  must  deny,  that  the  article  of  the  American  constitution 
already  mentioned,  can  be  applied  either  verbally,  intentionally,  or 
constructively,  to  me.  It  undoubtedly  was  the  intention  of  the  con- 
vention that  framed  it,  to  preserve  the  purity  of  the  American  re- 
public from  being  debased  by  foreign  and  foppish  customs  ;  but  it 
never  could  be  its  intention  to  act  against  the  principles  of  liberty, 
by  forbidding  its  citizens  to  assist  in  promoting  those  principles  in 
foreign  countries.;  neither  could  it  be  its  intention  to  act  against 
the  principles  of  gratitude.  France  had  aided  America  in  the  esta- 
blishment of  her  revolution,  when  invaded  and  oppressed  by  En- 
gland and  her  auxiliaries.  France  in  her  turn  was  invaded  and 
op]>ressed  by  a  combination  of  foreign  despots.  \n  this  situation,  I 
conceived  it  an  act  of  gratitude  in  me,  as  a  citizen  of  America,  to 
render  her  in  return  the  best  services  I  could  perform.  I  came  to 
France  (for  I  was  in  England  when  when  I  received  the  invitation) 
not  to  enjoy  ease,  emoluments,  and  foppish  honors,  as  the  article 
supposes ;  but  to  encounter  difficulties  and  dangers  in  defence  of 
liberty ;  and  I  much  question  whether  those  who  now  malignantly 
seek  (for  some  I  believe  do)  to  turn  this  to  my  injury,  would  have 
had  courage  to  have  done  the  same.  I  am  sure  Governeur  Morris 
would  not.    He  told  me  the  second  day  after  my  arrival,  (in  Paris,) 


APPENDIX.  41 

that  the  Austrians  and  Prussians,  who  were  then  at  Verdun,  would 
be  in  Paris  in  a  fortnight.  I  have  no  idea,  said  he,  that  seventy 
thousand  disciplined  troops  can  be  stopped  in  their  march  by  any 
power  in  France. 

Besides  the  reasons  I  have  already  given  for  accepting  the  invi- 
tation to  the  Convention,  I  had  another  that  has  reference  particu- 
larly to  America,  which  I  mentioned  to  Mr.  Pinkney  the  night 
before  I  left  London  to  come  to  Paris :  "  That  it  was  to  the  in- 
"  terest  of  America  that  the  system  of  European  governments 
"  should  be  changed  and  placed  on  the  same  principle  with  her 
"  own." 

It  is  certain  that  governments  upon  similar  systems  agree  better 
together  than  those  that  are  founded  on  principles  discordant  with 
each  other  ;  and  the  same  rule  holds  good  with  respect  to  the  peo- 
ple living  under  them.  In  the  latter  case  they  offend  each  other  by 
pity,  or  by  reproach  ;  and  the  discordancy  carries  itself  to  matters 
of  commerce.  I  am  not  an  ambitious  man,  but  perhaps  I  have  been 
an  ambitious  American.  I  have  wished  to  see  America  the  mother 
church  of  government. 

I  have  now  stated  sufficient  matter,  to  show  that  the  article  in 
question  is  not  applicable  to  me  ;  and  that  any  such  application  to 
my  injury,  as  well  in  circuumstances  as  in  rights,  is  contrary  both 
to  the  letter  and  intention  of  that  article,  and  is  illegal  and  uncon 
stitutional.  Neither  do  I  believe  that  any  jury  in  America,  when 
they  are  informed  of  the  whole  of  the  case,  would  give  a  verdict  to 
deprive  me  of  my  rights  upon  that  article.  The  citizens  of  Ameri- 
ca, I  believe,  are  not  very  fond  of  permitting  forced  and  indirect 
explanations  to  be  put  upon  matters  of  this  kind.  I  know  not  what 
were  the  merits  of  the  case  with  respect  to  the  person  who  was 
prosecuted  for  acting  as  prize  master  to  a  French  privateer,  but  I 
know  that  the  jury  gave  a  verdict  against  the  prosecution.  The 
rights  I  have  acquired  are  dear  to  me.  They  have  been  acquired 
by  honorable  means,  and  by  dangerous  service  in  the  worst  of 
times,  and  I  cannot  passively  permit  them  to  be  wrested  from  me. 
I  conceive  it  my  duty  to  defend  them,  as  the  case  involves  a  con- 
stitutional and  public  question,  which  is,  how  far  the  power  of  the 
federal  government  extends,  in  depriving  any  citizen  of  his  rights 
of  citizenship,  or  of  suspending  them. 

That  the  explanation  of  national  treaties  belongs  to  Congress  is 
strictly  constitutional ;  but  not  the  explanation  of  the  constitution 


42  APPENMX. 

itself,  any  more  than  the  explanation  of  law  in  the  case  of  individual 
citizens.  These  are  altogether  judiciary  questions.  It  is,  however, 
worth  observing,  that  Congress  in  explaining  the  article  of  the  treaty 
with  respect  to  French  prizes  and  French  privateers,  confined  itself 
strictly  to  the  letter  of  the  article.  Let  them  explain  the  article  of 
the  constitution  with  respect  to  me  in  the  same  manner,  and  the 
decision,  did  it  appertain  to  them,  could  not  deprive  me  of  my 
rights  of  citizenship,  or  sus{)end  them,  for  I  have  accepted  nothing 
from  any  king,  prince,  state,  or  government. 

You  will  please  to  observe,  that  I  speak  as  if  the  federal  govern- 
ment had  made  some  declaration  upon  the  subject  of  my  citizen- 
ship ;  whereas  the  fact  is  otlierwise  ;  and  your  saying  that  you  have 
no  order  respecting  me,  is  a  proof  of  it.  They,  therefore,  who 
propagate  the  report  of  my  not  being  considered  as  a  citizen  of 
America  by  government,  do  it  to  the  prolongation  of  my  imprison- 
ment, and  without  authority  ;  for  Congress,  as  a  government,  has 
neither  decided  upon  it,  nor  yet  taken  the  matter  into  considera- 
tion; and  I  request  you  to  caution  such  persons  against  spreading 
such  reports.  But  be  these  matters  as  they  may,  I  cannot  have  a 
doubt  that  you  find  and  feel  the  case  very  different,  since  you  have 
heard  what  I  have  to  say,  and  known  better  what  my  situation  is 
than  you  did  before  your  arrival. 

Painful  as  the  want  of  liberty  may  be,  it  is  a  consolation  to  me 
to  believe,  that  my  imprisonment  proves  to  the  world,  that  I  had  no 
share  in  the  murderous  system  that  then  reigned.  That  I  was  an 
enemy  to  it,  both  morally  and  politically,  is  known  to  all  who  had 
any  knowledge  of  me  ;  and  could  I  have  written  French  as  well  as 
I  can  English,  I  would  publicly  have  exposed  its  wickedness,  and 
shown  the  ruin  with  which  it  was  pregnant.  They  who  have 
esteemed  me  on  former  occasions,  whether  in  America  or  in  Eu- 
rope, will,  I  know,  feel  no  cause  to  abate  that  esteem,  when  they 
reflect,  that  imprisonment  with  preservation  of  character,  is  prefer' 
able  to  liberty  with  disgrace. 

The  letter  before  quoted  in  the  first  page  of  this  memorial,  says, 
"  It  would  be  out  of  character  for  an  American  minister  to  interfere 
"  in  the  internal  afiairs  of  France."  Tljis  goes  on  the  idea  that  I 
am  a  citizen  of  France,  and  a  member  of  the  Convention  ;  which  is 
not  the  fact.  The  Convention  have  declared  me  to  be  a  foreigner  ; 
and  consequently  the  citizenship  and  the  election  are  null  and  void. 
It  also  has  the  appearance  of  a  decision,  that  the  article  of  the  con- 


APPENDIX.  43 

stitution,  respecting  grants  made  to  American  citizens  by  foreign 
kings,  princes,  or  states,  is  applicable  to  me  ;  which  is  the  very  point 
in  question,  and  against  the  application  of  which  I  contend.  I  state 
evidence  to  the  minister,  to  show  that  I  am  not  within  the  letter  or 
meaning  of  that  article  ;  tiiat  it  cannot  operate  against  me  ;  and  1 
apply  to  him  for  the  protection  that  I  conceive  I  have  a  right  to 
ask  and  to  receive.  The  internal  affairs  of  France  are  out  of  the 
question  with  respect  to  my  application,  or  his  interference.  I  ask 
it  not  as  a  citizen  of  France,  for  I  am  not  one  ;  I  ask  it  not  as  a 
member  of  the  Convention,  for  I  am  not  one  ;  both  these,  as  before 
said,  have  been  rendered  null  and  void ;  I  ask  it  not  as  a  man 
against  whom  there  is  any  accusation,  for  there  is  none  ;  I  ask  it 
not  as  an  exile  from  America,  whose  liberties  I  have  honorably  and 
generously  contributed  to  establish  ;  I  ask  it  as  a  citizen  of  Ame- 
rica, deprived  of  his  liberty  in  France,  under  the  plea  of  being 
a  foreigner ;  and  I  ask  it  because  I  conceive  I  am  entitled  to  it, 
upon  every  principle  of  constitutional  justice  and  national  honor. 


LETTERS 


CITIZENS    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


LETTER     I. 

After  an  absence  of  almost  fifteen  years, 'I  am  again  returned 
to  the  country  in  whose  dangers  I  bore  my  share,  and  to  whose 
greatness  I  contributed  my  part. 

When  I  sailed  for  Europe,  in  the  spring  of  1787,  it  was  my  in- 
tention to  return  to  America  the  next  year,  and  enjoy  in  retirement 
the  esteem  of  my  friends,  and  the  repose  I  was  entitled  to.  I  had 
stood  out  the  storm  of  one  revolution,  and  had  no  wish  to  embark 
in  another.  But  other  scenes  and  other  circumstances  than  those 
of  contemplated  ease  were  allotted  to  me.  The  French  revolution 
was  beginning  to  germinate  when  I  arrived  in  France.  The  prin- 
ciples of  it  were  good,  they  were  copied  from  America,  and  the  men 
who  conducted  it  were  honest.  But  the  fury  of  faction  soon  extin- 
guished the  one,  and  sent  the  other  to  the  scaffold.  Of  those  who 
began  that  revolution,  I  am  almost  the  only  survivor,  and  that 
through  a  thousand  dangers.  I  owe  this  not  to  the  prayers  of 
priests,  nor  to  the  piety  of  hypocrites,  but  to  the  continued  protec- 
tion of  Providence. 

But  while  I  beheld  with  pleasure,  the  dawn  of  liberty  rising  in 
Europe,  I  saw  with  regret  the  lustre  of  it  fading  in  America.  In 
less  than  two  years  from  the  time  of  my  departure,  some  distant 
symptoms  painfully  suggested  the  idea  that  tlie  principles  of  the 
revolution  were  expiring  on  the  soil  that  produced  them.  I  receiv- 
ed at  that  time  a  letter  from  a  female  literary  correspondent,  and  in 
my  answer  to  her,  I  expressed  my  fears  on  that  head,  in  the  follow- 
ing pensive  soliloquy. 


46  LETTERS    TO    THE    CITIZENS 

"  You  tuuch  me  on  a  very  tender  point,  when  you  say  that  my 
friends  on  your  side  the  water  cannot  be  reconciled  to  the  idea  of 
my  abandoning  America,  even  for  my  native  England.  They  are 
right ;  I  had  rather  see  my  horse  Button  eating  the  grass  of  Bor- 
dentown  or  Morisania,  than  see  all  the  pomp  and  show  of  Europe. 

"  A  thousand  years  hence,  for  I  must  indulge  a  few  thoughts, 
perhaps  in  less,  America  may  be  what  Europe  now  is.  The  inno- 
cence of  her  character,  that  won  the  hearts  of  all  nations  in  her  fa- 
vor, may  sound  like  a  romance,  and  her  inimitable  virtue  as  if  it 
had  never  been.  The  ruins  of  that  liberty,  for  which  thousands 
have  bled,  may  just  furnish  materials  for  a  village  tale,  or  extort  a 
sigh  from  rustic  sensibility;  whilst  the  fashionable  of  that  day,  en- 
v'eloped  in  dissipation,  shall  deride  the  principles  and  deny  the  fact. 

"  When  we  contemplate  the  fall  of  empires,  and  the  extinction 
of  the  nations  of  the  ancient  world,  we  see  but  little  more  to  excite 
our  regret,  than  the  mouldering  ruins  of  pompous  palaces,  magnifi- 
cent monuments,  lofty  pyramids,  and  walls  and  towers  of  the  most 
costly  workmanship :  but  when  the  empire  of  America  shall  fall, 
the  subject  for  contemplative  sorrow  will  be  infinitely  greater  than 
crumbling  brass  or  marble  can  in  inspire.  It  will  not  then  be  said, 
here  stood  a  temple  of  vast  antiquity,  here  rose  a  Babel  of  invisible 
height,  or  there  a  palace  of  sumptuous  extravagance  ;  but  here  !  ah 
painful  thought!  the  noblest  work  of  human  wisdom — the  grandest 
scene  of  human  glory,  the  fair  caus.e  of  freedom  rose  and  fell. 
Read  this,  and  then  ask  if  I  forget  America." 

I  now  know  from  the  information  I  obtain  upon  the  spot,  that 
the  impressions  that  then  distressed  me,  for  I  was  proud  of  Ameri- 
ca, were  but  too  well  founded.  She  was  turning  her  back  on  her 
own  glory,  and  making  hasty  strides  in  the  retrograde  path  of  obli- 
vion. But  a  spark  from  the  altar  of  Seventi/-six,  unextinguished  and 
unextinguishable  through  that  long  night  of  error,  is  again  lighting 
up,  in  every  part  of  the  Union,  the  genuine  flame  of  rational  liberty. 

As  the  French  revolution  advanced,  it  fixed  the  attention  of  the 
world,  and  drew  from  the  pensioned  pen  of  Edmund  Burke  a  furi- 
ous attack.  This  brought  me  once  more  on  the  public  theatre  of 
politics,  and  occasioned  the  pamphlet  Rights  of  Man.  It  had  the 
greatest  run  of  any  work  ever  published  in  the  English  language. 
The  number  of  copies  circulated  in  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland, 
besides  translations  into  foreign  languages,  was  between  four  and 
^ve  hundred  thousand.    The  principles  of  that  work  were  the  same 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES.  47 

as  those  in  Common  Sense,  and  the  effects  would  have  been  the 
same  in  England  as  that  had  produced  in  America^  could  the  vote 
of  the  nation  have  been  quietly  taken,  or  had  equal  opportunities  of 
consulting  or  acting  existed.  The  only  difference  between  the  two 
works  was,  that  the  one  was  adapted  to  the  local  circumstances  of 
England,  and  the  other  to  those  of  America.  As  to  myself,  I  acted 
in  both  cases  alike  :  I  relinquished  to  the  people  of  England,  as  I 
had  done  to  those  of  America,  all  profits  from  the  work.  My  re- 
ward existed  in  the  ambition  to  do  good,  and  the  independent  hap- 
piness of  my  own  mind. 

But  a  faction,  acting  in  disguise,  was  rising  in  America ;  they 
had  lost  sight  of  first  principles.  They  were  beginning  to  contem- 
plate government  as  a  profitable  monopoly,  and  the  people  as  heri- 
ditary  property.  It  is,  therefore,  no  wonder  that  the  Rights  of  Man 
was  attacked  by  that  faction,  and  its  author  continually  abused. 
But  let  them  go  on,  give  them  rope  enough,  and  they  will  put  an 
end  to  their  own  insignificance.  There  is  too  much  common  sense 
and  independence  in  America  to  be  long  the  dupe  of  any  faction, 
foreign  or  domestic. 

But,  in  the  midst  of  the  freedom  we  enjoy,  the  licentiousness  of 
the  papers  called  federal,  (and  I  know  not  why  they  are  called  so, 
for  they  are  in  their  principles  anti-federal  and  despotic,)  is  a  dis- 
honor to  the  character  of  the  country,  and  an  injury  to  its  reputa- 
tion and  importance  abroad.  .  They  represent  the  whole  people  of 
America  as  destitute  of  public  principle  and  private  manners.  As 
to  any  injury  they  can  do  at  home  to  those  whom  they  abuse,  or 
service  they  can  render  to  those  who  employ  them,  it  is  to  be  set 
down  to  the  account  of  noisy  nothingness.  It  is  on  themselves  the 
disgrace  recoils,  for  the  reflection  easily  presents  itself  to  every 
thinking  mind,  that  those  ivho  abuse  liberty  when  they  possess  it 
would  abuse  power  could  they  obtain  it ;  and,  therefore,  they  may 
as  well  take  as  a  general  motto,  for  all  such  papers,  IVe  and  ou^ 
patrons  are  not  ^t  to  be  trusted  with  power. 

There  is  in  America,  more  than  in  ajiy  other  country,  a  large 
body  of  people  who  attend  quietly  to  their  farms,  or  follow  their 
several  occupations,  who  pay  no  regard  to  the  clamors  of  anony- 
mous scribblers,  who  think  for  themselves,  and  judge  of  govern- 
ment, not  by  the  fury  of  newspaper  writers,  but  by  the  prudent 
frugality  of  its  measures,  and  the  encouragement  it  gives  to  the 
improvement  and  prosperity  of  the  country,  and  who,  acting  on 


48  LETTER    TO    THE    CITIZENS 

their  own  judgment,  never  come  forward  in  an  election  but  on  some 
important  occasion. 

When  tliis  body  moves,  all  the  little  barkings  of  scribbling  and 
witless  curs  pass  for  nothing.  To  say  to  this  independent  descrip- 
tion of  men,  You  must  turn  out  such  and  such  persons  at  the  next 
election,  for  they  have  taken  off  a  great  many  taxes,  and  lessened 
the  expenses  of  government,  they  have  dismissed  my  son,  or  my 
brother,  or  myself,  from  a  lucrative  otTice,  in  which  there  was  no- 
thing to  do — is  to  show  the  cloven  foot  of  faction,  and  preach  the 
language  of  ill  disguised  mortification.  In  every  part  of  the  Union, 
this  faction  is  in  the  agonies  of  death,  and  in  proportion  as  its  fate 
approaches,  gnashes  its  teeth  and  struggles.  My  arrival  has  struck 
it  as  with  an  hydrophobia,  it  is  like  the  sight  of  water  to  canine 
madness. 

As  this  letter  is  intended  to  announce  my  arrival  to  my  friends, 
and  to  my  enemies,  if  I  have  any,  for  I  ought  to  have  none  in 
America,  and  as  introductory  to  others  that  will  occasionally  follow, 
I  shall  close  it  by  detailing  the  line  of  conduct  I  shall  pursue. 

I  have  no  occasion  to  ask,  and  do  not  intend  to  accept  any  place 
or  office  in  the  government.  There  is  none  it  could  give  me  that 
would  bo  any  ways  equal  to  the  profits  I  could  make  as  an  author, 
for  I  have  an  established  fame  in  the  literary  world,  could  I  recon- 
cile it  to  my  principles  to  make  money  by  my  politics  or  religion  ; 
1  must  be  in  every  thing  what  I  have  ever  been,  a  disinterested 
volunteer;  my  proper  sphere  of  action  is  on  the  common  floor  of 
citi/.enship,  and  to  honest  men  I  give  my  hand  and  my  heart 
freely. 

I  liave  some  manuscript  works  to  publish,  of  which  I  shall  give 
proper  notice,  and  some  mechanical  affairs  to  bring  forward,  that 
will  employ  all  my  leisure  time.  I  shall  continue  these  letters  as  1 
see  occasion,  and  as  to  the  low  party  prints  that  choose  to  abuse  me, 
they  are  welcome,  I  shall  not  descend  to  answer  them.  I  have 
been  too  much  used  to  such  common  stuff  to  take  any  notice  of  it. 
The  government  of  England  honored  me  with  a  thousand  martyr- 
doms, by  burning  me  in  effigy  in  every  town  in  that  country,  and 
their  hirelings  in  America  may  do  the  same. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 

Citi/  of  Washington. 


or    THE    UNITED    STATES.  49 


LETTER    II. 


As  the  affairs  of  the  country,  to  which  I  am  returned,  are  of 
more  importance  to  the  world  and  to  me,  than  of  that  I  have  lately 
left,  (for  it  is  through  the  new  world  the  old  must  be  regenerated,  if 
regenerated  at  all,)  I  shall  not  take  up  the  time  of  the  reader  with 
an  account  of  scenes  that  have  passed  in  France,  many  of  which 
are  painful  to  remember  and  horrid  to  relate,  but  come  at  once  to 
the  circumstances  in  which  t  find  America  on  njy  arrival. 

Fourteen  years,  and  something  more,  have  produced  a  change, 
at  least  among  a  part  of  the  people,  and  I  ask  myself  what  it  is  ?  I 
meet  or  hear  of  thousands  of  my  former  connexions,  who  are  men 
of  the  same  principles  and  friendships  as  when  I  left  them.  But  a 
non-descript  race,  and  of  equivocal  generation,  assuming  the  name 
of  federalist,  a  name  that  describes  no  character  of  principle  good 
or  bad,  and  may  equally  be  applied  to  either,  has  since  started  up 
with  the  rapidity  of  a  mushroom,  and  like  a  mushroom,  is  withering 
on  its  rootless  stalk.  Are  those  men  federalized  to  support  the 
liberties  of  their  country  or  to  overturn  them  1  To  add  to  its  fair 
fame  or  riot  on  its  spoils  ?  The  name  contains  no  defined  idea.  It 
is  like  John  Adams's  definition  of  a  republic  in  his  letter  to  Mr. 
Wytlie  of  Virginia,  It  is,  says  he,  a7i  empire  oflatvs  and  not  of 
men.  But  as  laws  may  be  bad  as  well  as  good,  an  en)pire  of  laws 
may  be  the  best  of  all  governments  or  the  worst  of  all  tyrannies. 
But  John  Adams  is  a  man  of  paradoxical  heresies,  and  consequently 
of  a  bewildered  mind.  He  wrote  a  book  entitled,  "  A  Defence  of 
the  American  Constitutions,^^  and  the  principles  of  it  are  an  attack 
upon  them.  But  the  book  is  descended  to  the  tomb  of  forgetfa'- 
ness,  and  the  best  fortune  that  can  attend  its  author  is  quietly  lo 
follow  its  fate.  John  was  not  born  for  immortality.  But,  to  retura 
to  federalism^ 

In  the  history  of  parties  and  the  names  they  assvmie,  it  often 
happens,  that  they  finish  by  the  direct  contrary  principles  v/:lh  which 
they  profess  to  begin,  and  thus  it  has  happened  with  federalism. 

During  the  time  of  the  old  Ccngres?,  and  prior  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  federal  government,  the  continental  belt  was  too  loosely 
buckled.  The  several  states  were  united  in  name  but  not  in  fact, 
tnd  tiiat  nominal  union  had  neither  centre  nor  circle.    The  laws  of 


50  LETTER    TO    THE    CITIZENS 

one  state  frequentl^y  Interfered  with,  and  sometimes  opposed,  those 
of  another.  Commerce  between  state  and  state  was  without  pro- 
tection, and  confidence  without  a  point  to  rest  on.  The  condition 
tlie  couatry  was  then  in,  was  aptly  described  by  Pelatiali  Webster, 
vhen  he  said,  "  thirteen  staves  and  ne''cr  a  hoop  will  not  make  a 
harreV^ 

If,  then,  by  feaeralist  is  to  be  understcod  one  who  was  for  co- 
mentingthe  Union  by  a  general  government  oper:;:;:ig  equally  over 
al!  the  states,  in  all  matters  that  embraced  the  conia.or.  iftti-rest,  and 
to  which  the  authority  of  the  states  severally  M'as  riui  adeqimu-,  for 
no  one  state  can  make  laws  to  bind  another ;  if,  I  say,  by  u  fcuir\dist 
is  meant  a  person  of  this  description,  (and  this  is  the  origin  of  the 
name,)  I  ought  to  stand  first  on  the  list  of  federalists,  for  tiie  pro- 
position for  establishing  a  general  government  over  the  Union,  came 
originally  from  me  in  1783,  in  a  written  memorial  to  Clia.Hc<llur 
Livingston,  then  secretary  for  foreign  afiairs  to  Congress,  Kolici  t 
Morris,  minister  of  finance,  and  his  associate,  Governeur  Morns,  all 
of  whom  are  now  living,  and  we  had  a  dinner  and  confeieucc  ai 
Robert  Morris's  on  the  subject.     The  occasion  was  as  follov\-s: 

Congress  had  proposed  a  duty  of  five  per  cent,  on  imported  arti- 
cles, the  money  to  be  applied  as  a  fund  towards  paying  the  IiiUTi.it 
of  loans  to  be  borrowed  in  Holland.  The  resolve  was  sent  to  the 
several  states  to  be  enacted  into  a  law.  Rhode  Island  abs<.k;clj. 
refused.  I  was  at  the  tremble  of  a  journey  to  Rhode  Island  to  re..- 
son  with  them  on  the  subject.  Some  other  of  the  states  endoied  ii 
with  alterations,  each  one  as  it  pleased.  Virginia  adopted  it,  and 
afterwards  repealed  it,  and  the  aflair  came  to  nothing. 

It  was  then  visible,  at  least  to  mc,  that  either  Congress  mu^'x 
frame  the  laws  necessary  for  the  Union,  and  send  them  to  the  seve- 
ral states  to  be  enregistered  without  any  alteration,  which  v/t^ukl  i« 
itself  appear  like  usurpation  on  one  part,  and  passive  obedience  t;M 
the  other,  or  some  method  must  be  devised  to  accompli'h  tl?*^  i^-wx^ 
end  by  constitutional  principles  ;  and  the  preposition  I  made  in  t!if' 
M»emorial  was,  to  add  a  continental  legislattire  to  Congress,  to  he 
elected  by  the  several  states.  The  proposition  met  the  full  appro- 
bation of  the  gentlemen  to  whom  it  was  addressed,  and  the  conver- 
sation turned  on  the  manner  of  bringing  it  forward.  Governeur 
Morris,  in  walking  with  me  after  dinner,  wished  mc  to  throw  out 
the  idea  in  the  newspaptrs;  J  replied,  that  I  did  not  like  to  be  al- 
ways the  proposer  of  new  things,  that  it  would  have  too  assuming 


OF   THE    UNITED    STATES.  51 

an  appearance;  and  besides,  that  I  did  not  think  the  country  was 
quite  wrong  enough  to  be  put  right.  I  remember  giving  the  same 
reason  to  Dr.  Rush,  at  Philadelphia,  and  to  General  Gates,  at  whose 
quarters  I  spent  a  day  on  my  return  from  Rhode  Island,  and  I 
suppose  they  will  remember  it,  because  the  observation  seemed  to 
strike  them. 

But  the  embarrassments  increasing,  as  they  necessarily  must  from 
the  want  of  a  better  cemented  union,  the  state  of  Virginia  proposed 
holding  a  commercial  convention,  and  that  convention,  which  was 
not  sufficiently  numerous,  proposed  that  another  convention,  with 
more  extensive  and  better  defined  powers,  should  be  held  at  Phila- 
delphia, May  10,  1787. 

When  the  plan  of  the  federal  government,  formed  by  this  con- 
vention, was  proposed  and  submitted  to  the  consideration  of  the 
several  states,  it  was  strongly  objected  to  in  each  of  them.  But 
the  objections  were  not  on  anti-federal  grounds,  but  on  constitu- 
tional points.  Many  were  shocked  at  the  idea  of  placing,  what  is 
called,  executive  power,  in  the  hands  of  a  single  individual.  To 
them  it  had  too  much  the  form  and  appearance  of  a  military  go- 
vernment, or  a  despotic  one.  Others  objected  that  the  powers  given 
to  a  president  were  too  great,  and  that  in  the  hands  of  an  ambitious 
and  designing  man,  it  might  grow  into  tyranny,  as  it  did  in  England 
under  Oliver  Cromwell,  and  as  it  has  since  done  in  France.  A 
republic  must  not  only  be  so  in  its  principles,  but  in  its  forms.  The 
executive  part  of  the  federal  government  was  made  for  a  man,  and 
those  who  consented,  against  their  judgment,  to  place  executive 
power  in  the  hands  of  a  single  individual,  reposed  more  on  the 
supposed  moderation  of  the  person  they  had  in  view,  than  on  the 
wisdom  of  the  measure  itself. 

Two  considerations,  however,  overcame  all  objections.  The 
one  was,  the  absolute  necessity  of  a  federal  government.  The 
other,  the  rational  reflection,  that  as  government  in  America  is 
founded  on  the  representative  system,  any  error  in  the  first  essay 
could  be  reformed  by  the  same  quiet  and  rational  process  by  which 
the  constitution  was  formed  ;  and  that,  either  by  the  generation 
then  living,  or  by  those  who  were  to  succeed.  If  ever  America 
lose  sight  of  this  principle,  she  will  no  longer  be  the  land  of  liberty. 
The  father  will  become  the  assassin  of  the  rights  of  the  son,  and  his 
descendants  be  a  race  of  slaves. 

As  many  thousands  who  were  minors  are  grown  up  to  manhood 


52  LETTER  TO  THE   CITIZENS 

since  the  name  o£  federalist  began,  it  became  necessary,  for  their 
information,  to  go  back  and  show  the  origin  of  the  name,  which  is 
now  no  longer  what  it  originally  was  ;  but  it  is  the  more  necessary 
to  do  this,  in  order  to  bring  forward,  in  the  open  face  of  day,  the 
apostacy  of  those  who  first  called  themselves  federalists. 

To  them  it  served  as  a  cloak  for  treason,  a  mask  for  tyranny. 
Scarcely  were  they  placed  in  the  seat  of  power  and  office,  than 
federalism  was  to  be  destroyed,  and  the  representative  system  of 
government,  the  pride  and  glory  of  America,  and  the  palladium  of 
her  liberties,  was  to  be  overthrown  and  abolished.  The  next  gene- 
ration was  not  to  be  free.  The  son  was  to  bend  his  neck  beneath 
the  father's  foot,  and  live,  deprived  of  his  rights,  under  hereditary 
control.  Among  the  men  of  this  apostate  description,  is  to  be 
ranked  the  ex-president  John  Adams.  It  has  been  the  politica 
career  of  this  man  to  begin  with  hypocrisy,  proceed  with  arrogance, 
and  finish  in  contempt.  May  such  be  the  fate  of  all  such  charac- 
ters. 

I  have  had  doubts  of  John  Adams  ever  since  the  year  1776.  In 
a  conversation  with  me  at  that  time,  concerning  the  pamphlet  Com- 
mon Sense,  he  censured  it  because  it  attacked  the  English  form  of 
government.  John  was  for  independence  because  he  expected  to 
be  made  great  by  it ;  but  it  was  not  difficult  to  perceive,  for  the 
surliness  of  his  temper  makes  him  an  awkward  hypocrite,  that  his 
head  was  as  full  of  kings,  queens,  and  knaves,  as  a  pack  of  cards. 
But  John  has  lost  deal. 

AVhen  a  man  has  a  concealed  project  in  his  brain  that  he  wants 
to  bring  forward,  and  fears  will  not  succeed,  he  begins  with  it  as 
physicians  do  by  suspected  poison,  try  it  first  on  an  animal ;  if  it 
agree  with  the  stomach  of  the  animal,  he  makes  further  experi- 
ments, and  this  was  the  way  John  took.  His  brain  was  teeming 
with  projects  to  overturn  the  liberties  of  America,  and  the  repre- 
sentative system  of  government,  and  he  began  by  hinting  it  in  little 
companies.  The  secretary  of  John  Jay,  an  excellent  painter  and 
a  poor  poUtician,  told  me,  in  presence  of  another  American,  Daniel 
Parker,  that  in  a  company  where  himself  was  present,  John  Adams 
talked  of  making  the  government  hereditary,  and  that  as  Mr.  Wash- 
ington had  no  children,  it  should  be  made  hereditary  in  the  family 
of  Lund  Washington.  John  had  not  impudence  enough  to  propose 
himself  in  the  first  instance,  as  the  old  French  Normandy  baron  did, 
who  offered  to  come  over  to  be  king  of  America,  and  if  Congress 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES.  59 

did  not  accept  his  offer,  that  they  would  give  him  thirty  thousand 
pounds  for  the  generosity  of  it ;  but  John,  Hke  a  mole,  was  grubbing 
his  way  to  it  under  ground.  He  knew  that  Lund  Washington  was 
unknown,  for  nobody  had  heard  of  him,  and  that  as  the  president 
had  no  children  to  succeed  him,  the  vice  president  had,  and  if  the 
treason  had  succeeded,  and  the  hint  with  it,  the  goldsmith  might  be 
sent  for  to  take  measure  of  the  head  of  John  or  of  his  son  for  a 
golden  wig.  In  this  case,  the  good  people  of  Boston  might  have  for 
a  king  the  man  they  have  rejected  as  a  delegate.  The  representa- 
tive system  is  fatal  to  ambition. 

Knowing,  as  I  do,  the  consummate  vanity  of  John  Adams,  and 
the  shallowness  of  his  judgment,  I  can  easily  picture  to  myself  that 
when  ho  arrived  at  the  federal  cit}^,  he  was  strutting  in  the  pomp  of 
his  imagination  before  the  presidential  house,  or  in  the  audience 
hall,  and  exulting  in  the  language  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  "Is  not  this 
great  Babylon  that  I  have  built  for  the  honor  of  my  majesty  !"  But 
in  that  unfortunate  hour,  or  soon  after,  John,  like  Nebuchadnezzar, 
was  driven  from  among  men,  and  fled  with  the  speed  of  a  post 
horse. 

Some  of  John  Adams's  loyal  subjects,  I  see,  have  been  to  present 
him  with  an  address  on  his  birthday  ;  but  the  language  they  use 
is  too  tame  for  the  occasion.  Birthday  addresses,  like  birthday 
odes,  should  not  creep  along  like  mildrops  down  a  cabbage  leaf, 
but  roll  in  a  torrent  of  poetical  metaphor.  I  will  give  them  a  spe- 
cimen for  the  next  year.     Here  it  is — 

When  an  Ant,  in  travelling  over  the  globe,  lift  up  its  foot,  and 
put  it  again  on  the  ground,  it  shakes  the  earth  to  its  centre :  but 
when  YOU,  the  mighty  Ant  of  the  East,  was  born,  &c.  &c.  «fcc., 
the  centre  jumped  upon  the  surface. 

This,  gentlemen,  is  the  proper  style  of  addresses  from  well-bred 
ants  to  the  monarch  of  the  ant  hills ;  and  as  I  never  take  pay  for 
preaching,  praying,  politics,  or  poetry,  I  make  you  a  present  of  it. 
Some  peP])le  talk  of  impeaching  John  Adajns  ;  but  I  am  for  softer 
measiu-es.  I  would  keep  him  to  make  fun  of.  He  will  then  answer 
one  of  the  ends  for  which  he  was  born,  and  he  ought  to  be  thankful 
that  I  am  arrived  to  take  his  part.  I  voted  in  eai-nest  to  save  the 
life  of  one  unfortunate  king,  and  I  now  vote  in  jest  to  save  another. 
It  is  my  fate  to  be  always  plagued  with  fools.  But  to  return  to 
federalism  and  apostacy. 

The  plan  of  the  leaders  of  the  faction  was  to  overthrow  the  liber- 


54  LETTERS    TO    THE   CITIZENS 

ties  of  the  new  world,  and  place  government  on  the  corrupt  system 
of  the  old.  They  wanted  to  hold  their  power  by  a  more  lasting 
tenure  than  the  choice  of  their  constituents.  It  is  impossible  to 
account  for  their  conduct  and  the  measures  they  adopted  on  any 
other  ground.  But  to  accomplish  that  object,  a  standing  army  and 
a  prodigal  revenue  must  be  raised ;  and  to  obtain  these,  pretences 
must  be  invented  to  deceive.  Alarms  of  dangers  that  did  not  exist 
even  in  imagination,  but  in  the  direct  spirit  of  lying,  were  spread 
abroad.  Apostacy  stalked  through  the  land  in  the  garb  of  patriot- 
ism, and  the  torch  of  treason  blinded  for  a  while  the  flame  of  liberty. 

For  what  purpose  could  an  army  of  twenty-five  thousand  men  be 
wanted  1  A  single  reflection  might  have  taught  the  most  credulous 
that  while  the  war  raged  between  France  and  England,  neither 
could  spare  a  man  to  invade  America.  For  what  purpose,  then, 
could  it  be  wanted  ?  The  case  carries  its  own  explanation.  It 
was  wanted  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the  representative  system, 
for  it  could  be  employed  for  no  other.  Are  these  men  federalists  ? 
If  they  are,  they  are  federalized  to  deceive  and  to  destroy. 

The  rage  against  Dr.  Logan's  patriotic  and  voluntary  mission  to 
France  was  excited  by  the  shame  they  felt  at  the  detection  of  the 
false  alarms  they  had  circulated.  As  to  the  opposition  given  by 
the  remnant  of  the  faction  to  the  repeal  of  the  taxes  laid  on  during 
the  former  administration,  it  is  easily  accounted  for.  The  repeal 
of  those  taxes  was  a  sentence  of  condemnation  on  those  who  laid 
them  on,  and  in  the  opposition  they  gave  in  that  repeal,  they  are 
to  be  considered  in  the  light  of  criminals  standing  on  their  defence, 
and  the  country  has  passed  judgment  upon  them. 

THOMAS    PAINE. 

City  of  WasMngtoii,  LovetVs  Hotel, 
Nov.  19  1802. 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES.  55 

LETTER    III. 

To  ELECT,  and  to  reject,  is  the  prerogative  of  a  free  people. 

Since  the  establishment  of  independence,  no  period  has  arrived, 
that  so  decidedly  proves  the  excellence  of  the  representative  sys- 
tem of  government,  and  its  superiority  over  every  other,  as  the  time 
we  now  live  in.  Had  America  been  cursed  with  John  Adams's 
hereditary  monarchy,  or  Alexander  Hamilton's  senate  for  life,  she 
must  have  sought,  in  the  doubtful  contest  of  civil  war,  what  she  now 
obtains  by  the  expression  of  public  will.  An, appeal  to  elections, 
decides  better  than  an  appeal  to  the  sword. 

The  reign  of  terror  that  raged  in  America,  during  the  latter  end 
of  the  Washington  administration,  and  the  whole  of  that  of  Adams., 
is  enveloped  in  mystery  to  me.  That  there  were  men  in  the  go- 
vernment hostile  to  the  representative  system,  though  it  is  now  their 
overthrow,  was  once  their  boast,  and  therefore  the  fact  is  established 
against  them.  But  that  so  large  a  mass  of  the  people  should  be 
come  the  dupes  of  those  who  were  loading  them  with  taxes,  in  order 
to  load  them  with  chains,  and  deprive  them  of  the  right  of  election, 
can  be  ascribed  only  to  that  species  of  wildfire  rage,  lighted  up  by 
falsehood,  that  not  only  acts  without  reflection,  but  is  too  impetu- 
ous to  make  any. 

There  is  a  general  and  striking  difference  between  the  genuine 
effects  of  truth  itself,  and  the  effects  of  falsehoods  believed  to  be 
truth.  Truth  is  naturally  benign ;  but  falsehood  believed  to  be 
truth  is  always  furious.  The  former  delights  in  serenity,  is  mild 
and  persuasive,  and  seeks  not  the  auxiliary  aid  of  invention.  The 
latter  sticks  at  nothing.  It  has  naturally  no  morals.  Every  lie  is 
welcome  that  suits  its  purpose.  It  is  the  innate  character  of  the 
the  thing,  to  act  in  this  manner,  and  the  criterion  by  which  it  may 
be  known,  whether  in  politics  or  religion.  When  any  thing  is  at- 
tempted to  be  supported  by  lying,  it  is  presumptive  evidence  that 
the  thing  so  supported  is  a  lie  also.  The  stock  on  which  a  lie  can 
be  engrafted  must  be  of  the  same  species  as  the  graft. 

What  is  become  of  the  mighty  clamor  of  French  invasions,  and 
the  cry  that  our  country  is  in  danger,  and  taxes  and  armies  must  be 
raised  to  defend  it  ?  The  danger  is  fled  with  the  faction  that  created 
it,  and  what  is  worst  of  all,  the  money  is  fled  too.  It  is  I  only  that 
have  committed  the  hostility  of  invasion,  and  all  the  artillery  of  pop 


56 


LETTER  TO  THE    CITIZENS 


guns  arc  prepared  for  action.  Poor  fellows,  how  they  foam  !  They 
set  half  their  own  partisans  in  laughter  ;  for  among  ridiculous 
things,  nothing  is  more  ridiculous  than  ridiculous  rage.  But  I  hope 
they  will  not  leave  off.  I  shall  lose  half  m^^  greatness  when  they 
cease  to  lie. 

So  far  as  respects  myself,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  and  a  right 
to  say,  that  the  leaders  of  the  reign  of  terror  in  America,  and  the 
leaders  of  the  reign  of  terror  in  France,  during  the  time  of  Robes- 
pierre, were  in  character  the  same  sort  of  men ;  or  how  is  it  to  be 
accounted  for,  that  I  was  persecuted  by  both  at  the  same  time  1 
When  I  was  voted  out  of  the  French  Convention,  the  reason  assign- 
ed for  it  was,  that  I  was  a  foreigner.  When  Robespierre  had  me 
seized  in  the  nighl,  and  imprisoned  in  the  Luxembourg,  (where  I 
remained  eleven  months,)  he  assigned  no  reason  for  it.  But  when 
he  proposed  bringing  me  to  the  tribunal,  which  was  like  sending 
me  at  once  to  the  scaffold,  he  then  assigned  a  reason,  and  the  rea- 
son was,  ybr  the  interest  of  America  as  well  as  of  France.  "  Pour 
Vintcret  de  VAmerique  autant  que  de  la  France."  The  words 
are  in  his  own  hand  writing,  and  reported  to  the  Convention  by  the 
committee  appointed  to  examine  his  papers,  and  are  printed  in  their 
report,  with  this  reflection  added  to  them,  "  Why  Thomas  Paine 
more  than  another?  Because  he  contributed  to  the  liberty  of  both 
worlds." 

There  must  have  been  a  coalition  in  sentiment,  if  not  in  fact, 
between  the  terrorists  of  America  and  the  terrorists  of  France,  and 
Robespierre  must  have  known  it,  or  he  could  not  have  had  the  idea 
of  putting  America  into  the  bill  of  accusation  against  me.  Y 
these  men,  these  terrorists  of  the  new  world,  who  were  waiting  ir 
the  devotion  of  their  hearts,  for  the  joyful  news  of  my  destruction, 
are  the  same  banditti  who  are  now  bellowing  in  all  the  hacknied 
language  of  hacknied  hypocrisy,  about  humanit}',  and  piety,  and 
often  about  something  they  call  infidelity,  and  they  finish  with  the 
chorus  of  Crucify  him,  crucify  him.  I  am  become  so  famou 
among  them,  they  cannot  eat  or  drink  without  me.  I  serve  them  as 
a  standing  dish,  and  they  cannot  make  up  a  bill  of  fare  if  I  am  not 
in  it. 

But  there  is  one  dish,  and  that  the  choicest  of  all,  that  they  have 
not  presented  on  the  table,  and  it  is  time  they  should.  They  have 
not  yet  accused  Providence  of  infidelity.  Yet  according  to  their 
outrageous  piety,  she  must  be  as  bad  as  Thomas  Paine  ;  she  has  pro- 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES.  57 

tected  him  in  all  his  dangers,  patronizc4  him  in  all  his  undertakings, 
encouraged  him  in  all  his  ways,  and  rewarded  him  at  last  by  bring- 
ing him  in  safety  and  in  health  to  the  promised  land.  This  is  more 
than  she  did  by  the  Jews,  the  chosen  people,  that  they  tell  us  she 
brought  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  out  of  the  house  of  bondage  ; 
for  they  all  died  in  the  wilderness,  and  Moses  too. 

I  was  one  of  the  nine  members  that  composed  the  first  Commit- 
tee of  Constitution.  Six  of  them  have  been  destroyed.  Sicyes 
and  myself  have  survived — he  by  bending  with  the  times,  and  I  by 
not  bending.  The  other  survivor  joined  Robespierre,  he  was  seiz- 
ed and  imprisoned  in  his  turn,  and  sentenced  to  transportation.  He 
has  since  apologized  to  me  for  having  signed  the  warrant,  by  say- 
ing, he  felt  himself  in  danger  and  was  obliged  to  do  it. 

Herault  Sechelles,  an  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  a  good 
patriot,  was  my  suppliant  as  member  of  the  Committee  of  Consti- 
tution, that  is,  he  was  to  supply  my  place,  if  I  had  not  accepted  or 
resigned,  being  next  in  number  of  votes  to  me.  He  was  imprisoned 
in  the  Luxembourg  with  me,  was  taken  to  the  tribunal  and  the  guil- 
lotine, and  I,  his  principal,  was  left. 

There  were  two  foreigners  in  the  Convention,  Anarcharsis  Cloots 
and  myself.  We  were  both  put  out  of  tlie  Convention  by  the  same 
vote,  arrested  by  the  same  order,  and  carried  to  prison  together  the 
same  night.  He  was  taken  to  the  guillotine,  and  I  was  again  left. 
Joel  Barlow  was  with  us  when  we  went  to  prison. 

Joseph  Lebon,  one  of  the  vilest  characters  that  ever  existed,  and 
who  made  the  streets  of  Arras  run  with  blood,  was  my  suppliant, 
as  member  of  the  Convention  for  the  department  of  the  Pas  de 
Calais.  When  I  was  put  out  of  the  Convention  he  came  and  took 
my  place.  When  I  was  liberated  from  prison  and  voted  again  into 
the  Convention,  he  was  sent  to  the  same  prison  and  took  my  place 
there,  and  he  was  sent  to  the  guillotine  instead  of  me.  He  supplied 
my  place  all  the  way  through. 

One  hundred  and  sixty-eight  persons  were  taken  out  of  the  Lux- 
embourg in  one  night,  and  a  hundred  and  sixty  of  them  guillotined 
next  day,  of  which  1  now  know  I  was  to  have  been  one  ;  and  the 
manner  I  escaped  that  fate  is  curious,  and  has  all  the  appearance  of 
accident. 

The  room  in  which  I  was  lodged  was  on  the  ground  floor,  and 

ne  of  a  long  range  of  rooms  under  a  gallery,  and  the  door  of  it 

opened  outward  and  flat  against  the  wall ;  so  that  when  it  was 


58  LETTER    TO    THE    CITIZENS 

open  the  inside  of  the  door  appeared  outward,  and  the  contrary 
when  it  was  shut.  I  had  three  comrades,  fellow  prisoners  with  rae, 
Joseph  Vanhuile  of  Bruges,  since  president  of  the  municipality  of 
that  town,  Michael,  and  Robbins  Bastini,  of  Louvain. 

When  persons  by  scores  and  by  hundreds  were  to  be  taken  out 
of  the  prison  for  the  guillotine  it  was  always  done  in  the  night,  and 
those  who  performed  that  office  had  a  private  mark  or  signal,  by 
which  they  knew  what  rooms  to  go  to,  and  what  number  to  take. 
We,  as  I  have  said,  were  four,  and  the  door  of  our  room  was  mark- 
ed, unobserved  by  us,  with  that  number  in  chalk  ;  but  it  happened, 
if  happening  is  a  proper  word,  that  the  mark  was  put  on  when  the 
door  was  open,  and  flat  against  the  wall,  and  thereby  came  on  the 
inside  when  we  shut  it  at  night,  and  the  destroying  angel  passed  by 
it.  A  kw  days  after  this,  Robespierre  fell,  and  Mr.  Monroe  arrived 
and  reclaimed  me,  and  invited  me  to  his  house. 

During  the  whole  of  my  imprisonment,  prior  to  the  fall  of  Robes- 
pierre, there  was  no  time  when  I  could  think  my  life  worth  twenty- 
four  hours,  and  my  mind  was  made  up  to  meet  its  fate.  The 
Americans  in  Paris  went  in  a  body  to  the  Convention  to  reclaim 
me,  but  without  success.  There  was  no  party  among  them  with 
respect  to  me.  My  only  hope  then  rested  on  the  government  of 
America,  that  it  would  remember  me.  But  the  icy  heart  of  ingrati- 
tude, in  whatever  man  it  be  placed,  has  neither  feeling  nor  sense  of 
honor.  The  letter  of  Mr.  Jefferson  has  served  to  wipe  away  the  re- 
proach, and  done  justice  to  the  mass  of  the  people  of  America. 

When  a  party  was  forming,  in  the  latter  end  of  seventy-seven, 
and  beginning  of  seventy-eight,  of  which  .Tohn  Adams  was  one,  to 
remove  Mr.  Washington  from  the  command  of  the  army  on  the 
complaint  that  he  did  nothing,  I  wrote  the  fifth  number  of  the  Cri- 
sis, and  published  it  at  Lancaster,  (Congress  then  being  at  York- 
town,  in  Pennsylvania,)  to  ward  off"  that  meditated  blow:  for  though 
I  well  knew  that  the  black  times  of  seventy-six  was  the.  natural  con- 
sequence of  his  want  of  military  judgment  in  the  choice  of  positions 
into  which  the  army  was  put  about  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  I 
could  see  no  possible  advantage,  and  nothing  but  mischief,  that 
could  arise  by  distracting  the  army  into  parties,  which  would  have 
been  the  case  had  the  intended  motion  gone  on. 

General  Lee,  who,  with  a  sarcastic  genius,  joined  a  great  fund  of 
military  knowledge,  was  perfectly  right  when  he  said,  "  We  have 
no  business  on  islands,  and  in  the  bottom  ofbogs,  vjhere  the  enemy, 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES.  59 

hy  the  aid  of  its  ships,  can  bring  its  whole  force  against  apart  of 
ours  and  shut  it  up.  This  had  like  to  have  been  the  case  at  New 
York,  and  it  was  the  case  at  Fort  Washington,  and  would  have  been 
the  case  at  Fort  Lee  if  General  Greene  had  not  moved  instantly 
off  on  the  first  news  of  the  enemy's  approach.  I  was  with  Greene 
through  the  whole  of  that  affair,  and  know  it  perfectly. 

But  though  I  came  forward  in  defence  of  Mr.  Washington  when 
he  was  attacked,  and  made  the  best  that  could  be  made  of  a  series 
of  blunders  that  had  nearly  ruined  the  country,  he  left  me  to  perish 
when  I  was  in  prison.  But  as  I  told  him  of  it  in  his  life-time,  I 
should  not  now  bring  it  up,  if  the  ignorant  impertinence  of  some  of 
the  federal  papers,  who  are  pushing  ]Mr.  Washington  forward  as 
their  stalking  horse,  did  not  make  it  necessary. 

That  gentleman  did  not  perform  his  part  in  the  revolution  bet- 
ter, nor  with  more  honor,  than  I  did  mine,  and  the  one  part  was  as 
necessary  as  the  other.  He  accepted  as  a  present,  (though  he  was 
already  rich,)  a  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land  in  America,  and  left 
me  to  occupy  six  foot  of  earth  in  France.  I  wish,  for  his  own  repu- 
tation, he  had  acted  with  more  justice.  But  it  was  always  known 
of  Mr.  Washington,  by  those  who  best  knew  him,  that  he  was  of 
such  an  icy  and  death-like  consthution,  that  he  neither  loved  his 
friends  nor  hated  his  enemies.  But,  be  this  as  it  may,  I  see  no  rea- 
son that  a  difference  between  Mr.  Washington  and  me  should  be 
made  a  theme  of  discord  with  other  people.  There  are  those  who 
may  see  merit  in  both,  without  making  themselves  partisans  of 
either,  and  with  this  reflection  I  close  the  subject. 

As  to  the  hypocritical  abuse  thrown  out  by  the  federalists  on 
other  subjects,  I  recommend  to  them  the  observance  of  a  command- 
ment that  existed  before  either  Christian  or  Jew  existed. 

"  Thou  shalt  make  a  covenant  with  thy  senses. 

"  With  thine  eye,  that  it  behold  no  evil. 

•'  With  thine  ear,  that  it  hear  no  evil. 

"With  thy  tongue,  that  it  speak  no  evil. 

"  With  thy  hands,  that  they  commit  no  evil." 

If  the  federalists  will  follow  this  commandment,  they  will  leave 
off  lying. 

THOMAS    PAINE. 
Federal  City,  LovetVs  Hotel, 
Nov.  26. 1802. 


60  LETTERS    TO    THE    CITIZEN* 

LETTER   IV. 

As  Congress  is  on  the  point  of  meeting,  the  public  papers  will 
necessarily  be  occupied  with  the  debates  of  the  ensuing  session, 
and  as,  in  consequence  of  my  long  absence  from  America,  my  pri- 
vate affairs  require  my  attendance,  (for  it  is  necessary  I  do  this,  or 
I  could  not  preserve,  as  I  do,  my  independence,)  I  shall  close  my 
address  to  the  public  with  this  letter. 

I  congratulate  them  or  the  success  of  the  late  elections,  and  that 
with  the  additional  confidence,  that  while  honest  men  are  chosen 
and  wise  measures  pursued,  neither  the  treason  of  apostacy,  masked 
under  the  name  of  federalism,  of  which  I  have  spoken  in  my  second 
letter,  nor  the  intrigues  of  foreign  emissaries,  acting  in  concert  with 
that  mask,  can  prevail. 

As  to  the  licentiousness  of  the  papers  calling  themselves /cf?cra?, 
a  name  that  apostacy  has  taken,  it  can  hurt  nobody  but  the  party 
or  the  persons  who  support  such  papers.  There  is  naturally  a 
wholesome  pride  in  the  public  mind  that  revolts  at  open  vulgarity. 
It  feels  itself  dishonored  even  by  hearing  it,  as  a  chaste  woman  feels 
dishonor  by  hearing  obscenity  she  cannot  avoid.  It  can  smile  at 
wit,  or  be  diverted  with  strokes  of  satirical  humor,  but  it  destests  the 
blackguard.  The  same  sense  of  propriety  that  governs  in  private 
companies,  governs  in  public  life.  If  a  man  in  company  runs  his 
wit  upon  another,  it  may  draw  a  smile  from  some  persons  present, 
but  as  soon  as  he  turns  a  blackguard  in  his  language,  the  company 
gives  him  up  ;  and  it  is  the  same  in  public  life.  The  event  of  the 
late  election  shows  this  to  be  true  ;  for  in  proportion  as  those  pa- 
pers have  become  more  and  more  vulgar  and  abusive,  the  electrons 
have  gone  more  and  more  against  the  party  they  support,  or  that 
supports  them.  Their  predecessor.  Porcupine,  had  wit — these  scrib- 
blers have  none.  But  as  soon  as  his  blackguardism  (for  it  is  the 
proper  name  of  it)  outrun  his  wit,  he  was  abandoned  by  every  body 
but  the  English  minister  that  protected  him. 

The  Spanish  proverb  says,  "  there  never  was  a  cover  large 
enough  to  hide  itself;''''  and  the  proverb  applies  to  the  case  of  those 
papers  and  the  shattered  remnant  of  the  faction  that  supports  them. 
The  falsehoods  they  fabricate,  and  the  abuse  they  circulate,  is  a 
cover  to  hide  something  from  being  seen,  but  it  is  not  large  enough 
to  hide  itself.     It  is  as  a  tub  thrown  out  to  the  whale  to  prevent  its 


OF    THE    TNITED    STATES.  61 

attacking  and  sinking  the  vessel.  They  want  to  draw  the  attention 
of  the  public  from  thinking  about,  or  inquiring  into,  the  measures 
of  the  late  administration,  and  the  reason  why  so  much  public  mo- 
ney WRS  raised  and  expended  ;  and  so  far  as  a  lie  today,  and  a  new 
one  tomorrow,  will  answer  this  purpose,  it  answers  theirs.  It  is 
nothing  to  them  whether  they  be  believed  or  not,  for  if  the  negative 
purpose  be  answered,  the  main  point  is  answered  to  them. 

He  that  picks  your  pocket  always  tries  to  make  you  look  another 
way.  "  Look,"  says  he,  "  at  yon  man  t'other  side  the  street — what 
a  nose  he  has  got] — Lord,  yonder  is  a  chimney  on  fire ! — Do  you 
see  yon  man  going  along  in  the  salamander  great  coat?  That  is  the 
very  man  that  stole  one  of  Jupiter's  satellites,  and  sold  it  to  a  coun- 
tryman for  a  gold  watch,  and  it  set  his  breeches  on  fire!"  Now 
the  man  that  has  his  hand  in  your  pocket,  does  not  care  a  farthing 
whether  you  believe  what  he  says  or  not.  All  his  aim  is  to  prevent 
your  looking  at  him  ;  and  this  is  the  case  wtth  the  remnant  of  the 
federal  faction.  The  leaders  of  it  have  imposed  upon  the  country, 
and  they  want  to  turn  the  attention  of  it  from  the  subject. 

In  taking  up  any  public  matter,  I  have  never  made  it  a  eonsider- 
ation,  and  never  will,  whether  it  be  popular  or  unpopular;  but 
whether  it  be  right  or  wrong.  The  right  will  always  become  the 
popular,  if  it  has  courage  to  show  itself,  and  the  shortest  way  is 
always  a  straight  line.  I  despise  expedients,  they  are  the  gutter  hole 
of  politics,  and  the  sink  where  reputation  dies.  In  the  present  case, 
as  in  every  other,  I  cannot  be  accused  of  using  any  ;  and  I  have  no 
doubt  but  thousands  will  hereafter  be  ready  to  say,  as  Govcrncur 
Morris  said  to  me,  after  having  abused  me  pretty  handsomely  in 
Congress,  for  the  opposition  I  gave  the  fraudulent  demand  of  Silas 
Deane  of  two  thousand  pounds  sterling :  "  Well!  we  were  all  duped, 
and  I  aviong  the  restT'' 

Were  the  late  administration  to  be  called  upon  to  give  reasons 
for  the  expense  it  put  the  country  to,  it  can  give  none.  The  dan- 
ger of  an  invasion  was  a  bubble  that  served  as  a  cover  to  raise  taxes 
and  armies  to  be  employed  on  some  other  purpose.  But  if  the 
people  of  America  believed  it  true,  the  cheerfulness  with  which  they 
supported  those  measures  and  paid  those  taxes,  is  an  evidence  of 
their  patriotism ;  and  if  they  supposed  me  their  enemy,  though  in 
that  supposition  they  did  me  injustice,  it  was  not  injustice  in  them. 
He  that  acts  as  he  believes,  though  he  may  act  wrong,  is  not  con- 
scious of  wrong. 


62  LETTERS  TO  THE  CITIZENS 

But  tliough  there  was  no  danger,  no  thanks  are  due  to  the  late 
administration  for  it.  They  sought  to  blow  up  a  flame  between 
the  two  countries;  and  so  intent  were  they  upon  this,  that  they 
went  out  of  their  way  to  accomplish  it.  In  a  letter  which  the  se- 
cretary of  state,  Timothy  Pickering,  wrote  to  Mr.  Skipwith,  the 
American  Consul  at  Paris,  he  broke  off  from  the  official  subject  ot 
his  letter,  to  thank  God,  in  very  exulting  language,  that  the  Rus- 
sians had  cut  the  French  army  to  pieces.  Mr.  Skipwith,  after 
showing  me  the  letter,  very  prudently  concealed  it. 

It  was  the  injudicious  and  wicked  acrimony  of  this  letter,  and 
some  other  like  conduct  of  the  then  secretary  of  state,  that  occa- 
sioned me,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  in  the  government,  to  say,  that  it 
there  was  any  official  business  to  be  done  in  France,  till  a  regular 
minister  could  be  appointed,  it  could  not  be  trusted  to  a  more  pro- 
per person  than  Mr.  Skipwith. 

"  He  is,"*^  "  said  I,  "  an  honest  man,  and  will  do  business,  and 
that  with  good  manners  to  the  government  he  is  commissioned  to  act 
icith.  A  faculty  tvhich  that  bear,  Timothy  Pickering,  tvanted, 
and  lohich  the  bear  of  that  bear,  John  Adams,  never  possesscdy 

In  another  letter  to  the  same  friend,  in  1797,  and  which  was  put 
unsealed  under  cover  to  Colonel  Burr,  I  expressed  a  satisfaction 
that  Mr.  Jefferson,  since  he  was  not  president,  had  accepted  the 
vice  presidency,  "/or,"  said  I,  '■'^  John  Adams  has  such  a  talent  for 
blundering  and  offending,  it  will  be  necessary  to  keep  an  eye  over 
him"  He  has  now  sufficiently  proved,  that  though  I  have  not  the 
spirit  of  prophecy,  I  have  the  gift  of  judging  right.  And  all  the 
world  knows,  for  it  cannot  help  knowing,  that  to  judge  rightly,  and 
to  write  clearly,  and  that  upon  all  sorts  of  subjects ;  to  be  able  to 
command  thought,  and,  as  it  were,  to  play  with  it  at  pleasure,  and 
be  always  master  of  one's  temper  in  writing,  is  the  faculty  only  of  a 
serene  mind,  and  the  attribute  of  a  happy  and  philosophical  tempera- 
ment. The  scribblers,  who  know  me  not,  and  who  fill  their  papers 
with  paragraphs  about  me,  besides,  their  want  of  talents,  drink  too 
many  slings  and  drams  in  a  morning,  to  have  any  chance  with  me. 
But,  poor  fellows!  they  must  do  something  for  the  little  pittance 
they  get  from  their  employers.     This  is  my  apology  for  them. 

My  anxiety  to  get  back  to  Ameiica  was  great  for  many  years. 
It  is  the  country  of  my  heart,  and  the  place  of  my  political  and  lite- 
rary birth.  It  was  the  American  revolution  that  made  me  an  author, 
ind  forced  into  actioia  the  mind  that  had  been  dormant,  and  had 


OP    THE    UNITED    STATES,  63 

no  wish  for  public  life,  nor  has  it  now.  By  the  accounts  I  received, 
she  appeared  to  me  to  be  going  wrong,  and  that  some  meditated 
treason  against  her  liberties  hirked  at  the  bottom  of  her  government. 
I  heard  that  my  friends  were  oppressed,  and  I  longed  to  take  my 
standing  among  them,  and  if  "  other  times  to  try  mcii's  souls'^  were 
to  arrive,  that  I  might  bear  my  share.  But  my  efforts  to  return 
were  ineffectual. 

As  soon  as  Mr.  Monroe  had  made  a  good  standing  with  the  French 
government,  for  the  conduct  of  his  predecessor  had  made  his  recep- 
tion as  minister  difficult,  he  wanted  to  send  despatches  to  his  own 
government  b}'^  a  person  to  whom  he  could  confide  a  verbal  com- 
munication, and  he  fixed  his  choice  on  me.  He  then  applied  to  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  for  a  passport ;  but  as  I  had  been  voted 
again  into  the  Convention,  it  was  only  the  Convention  that  could 
give  the  passport ;  and  as  an  application  to  them  for  that  purpose, 
would  have  made  my  going  publicly  known,  I  was  obliged  to  sus- 
tain the  disappointment,  and  Mr.  Monroe  to  lose  the  opportunity. 

When  that  gentleman  left  France  to  return  to  Ameiica,!  was  to 
have  gone  with  him.  It  was  fortunate  I  did  not.  The  vessel  he 
sailed  in  was  visited  by  a  British  frigate,  that  searched  every  part  of 
it,  and  down  to  the  hold,  for  Thomas  Paine.  I  then  went,  the  same 
year,  to  embark  at  Havre.  But  several  British  frigates  were  cruiz- 
ing in  sight  of  the  port  who  knew  I  was  there,  and  I  had  to  return 
again  to  Paris.  Seeing  myself  thus  cut  oft' from  every  opportunity 
that  was  in  my  power  to  command,  I  wrote  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  that, 
if  the  fate  of  the  election  should  put  him  in  the  chair  of  the  presi- 
dency, and  he  should  have  occasion  to  send  a  frigate  to  France,  he 
would  give  me  the  opportunity  of  returning  by  it,  which  he  did. 
But  I  declined  coming  by  the  Maryland,  the  vessel  that  was  offered 
me,  and  waited  for  the  frigate  ihat  was  to  bring  the  new  minister, 
Mr.  Chancellor  Livingston,  to  France  ;  but  that  frigate  was  ordered 
round  to  the  Mediterranean  ;  and  as  at  that  time  the  war  was  over, 
and  the  British  cruisers  called  in,  I  could  come  any  way.  I  then 
agreed  to  come  with  Commodore  Barney  in  a  vessel  he  had  en- 
gaged. It  was  again  fortunate  I  did  not,  for  the  vessel  sunk  at  sea, 
and  the  people  were  preserved  in  the  boat. 

Had  half  the  number  of  evils  befallen  me  that  the  number  of 
dangers  amount  to  through  which  I  have  been  preserved,  there  are 
those  who  would  ascribe  it  to  the  wrath  of  heaven  ;  why  then  do 
they  not  ascribe  my  preservation  to  the  protecting  favor  of  heaven? 


64 


LETTERS    TO    THE    CITIZENS 


Even  in  my  worldly  concerns  I  have  been  blessed.  The  little  pro- 
perty I  left  in  America,  and  which  I  cared  nothing  about,  not  even 
to  receive  the  rent  of  it,  has  been  increasing  in  the  value  of  its  capi- 
tal more  than  eight  hundred  dollars  every  year,  for  the  fourteen 
years  and  more  that  I  have  been  absent  from  h.  I  am  now  in  my 
circumstances  independent ;  and  my  economy  makes  me  lich.  As 
to  my  health,  it  is  perfectly  good,  and  I  leave  the  world  to  judge  of 
the  stature  of  my  mind.  I  am  in  every  instance  a  living  contradic- 
tion to  the  mortified  federalists. 

In  my  publications,  I  follow  the  rule  1  began  with  in  Common 
Sense,  that  is,  to  consult  nobody,  nor  to  let  any  body  see  what  I 
write  till  it  appears  publicly.  Were  I  to  do  otherwise,  the  case  would 
be,  that  between  the  timidity  of  some,  who  are  so  afraid  of  doing 
wrong,  that  they  never  do  right,  the  puny  judgment  of  others,  and 
the  despicable  craft  of  preferring  expedient  to  right,  as  if  the  world 
was  a  world  of  babies  in  leading  strings,  I  should  get  forward  with 
nothing.  My  path  is  a  right  line,  as  straight  and  clear  to  me  as  a 
ray  of  light.  The  boldness  (if  they  will  have  it  to  be  so)  with  which 
I  speak  on  any  subject,  is  a  compliment  to  the  judgment  of  the  read- 
er. It  is  like  saying  to  h\m,I treat  r/ou  as  a  man  a7id not  as  a  child. 
With  respect  to  any  worldly  object,  as  it  is  impossible  to  discover 
any  in  me,  tlierefore  what  I  do,  and  my  manner  of  doing  it,  ought  to 
be  ascribed  to  a  good  motive. 

In  a  great  affair,  where  the  happiness  of  man  is  at  stake,  I  love 
to  work  for  nothing;  and  so  fully  am  I  under  the  influence  of  this 
principle,  that  I  should  lose  the  spirit,  the  pleasure,  and  the  pride  of 
it,  were  I  conscious  that  I  looked  for  reward  ;  and  with  this  decia 
ration,  I  take  my  leave  for  the  present. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 

Federal  City,  Lovetfs  Hotel, 
Dec.  3    1802. 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES.  65 


LETTER    V. 


Towards  the  latter  end  of  last  December,  I  received  a  letter 
from  a  venerable  patriot,  Samuel  Adams,  dated  Boston,  Nov.  30. 
It  came  by  a  private  hand,  which  I  suppose  was  the  cause  of  the 
delay.  I  wrote  Mr.  Adams  an  answer,  dated  Jan.  1st,  and  that  I 
might  be  certain  of  his  receiving  it,  and  also  that  I  might  know  of 
that  reception,  I  desired  a  friend  of  mine  at  AVasliington  to  put  it 
under  cover  to  some  friend  of  his  at  Boston,  and  desire  him  to 
present  it  to  Mr.  Adams.  The  letter  was  accordingly  put  under 
cover  while  I  was  present,  and  given  to  one  of  the  clerks  of  the 
post  office  to  seal  and  put  in  the  mail.  The  clerk  put  it  in  his 
pocket  book,  and  either  forgot  to  put  it  into  the  mail,  or  supposed 
he  had  done  so  among  other  letters.  The  post-master  general,  on 
learning  this  mistake,  informed  me  of  it,  last  Saturday,  and  as  the 
cover  was  then  out  of  date,  the  letter  was  put  under  a  new  cover, 
with  the  same  request,  and  forwarded  by  the  post.  I  felt  concern  at 
this  accident,  lest  Mr.  Adams  should  conclude  I  was  unmindful 
of  his  attention  to  me;  and  therefore,  lest  any  further  accident 
should  prevent  or  delay  his  receiving  it,  as  well  as  to  relieve  myself 
from  that  concern,  I  give  the  letter  an  opportunity  of  reaching  him 
by  the  newspapers.  I  am  the  more  induced  to  do  this,  because 
some  manuscript  copies  have  been  taken  of  both  letters,  and 
therefore,  there  is  a  possibility  of  imperfect  copies  getting  into  print ; 
and  besides  this,  if  some  of  the  federal  printers  (for  I  hope  they  are 
not  all  base  alike)  could  get  hold  of  a  copy,  they  would  make  no 
scruple  of  altering  it,  and  publishing  it  as  mine.  I  therefore  send 
you  the  original  letter,  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  my  own  copy  of  the 
answer. 

THOMAS    PAIiNE. 

Federal  City. 


66  LETTERS    TO    THE    CITIZENS 


LETTER  VI. 

Boston,  Nov.  30,  1802. 
Sir: 

I  have  frequently  with  pleasure  reflected  on  your  services  to  ray 
native  and  your  adopted  country.  Your  Common  Sense  and  your 
Crisis  unquestionably  awakened  the  public  mind,  and  led  the  people 
loudly  to  call  for  a  declaration  of  our  national  independence.  I 
therefore  esteemed  you  as  a  warm  friend  to  the  liberty  and  lasting, 
welfare  of  the  human  race.  But  when  I  heard  that  you  had  turned 
your  mind  tc  a  defence  of  infidelity,  I  felt  myself  much  astonished 
and  more  grieved,  that  you  had  attempted  a  measure  so  injurious  to 
the  feelings  and  so  repugnant  to  the  true  interest  of  so  great  a  part 
of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States.  The  people  of  New  England, 
if  you  will  allow  me  to  use  a  scripture  phrase,  are  fast  returning  to 
their  first  love.  Will  you  excite  among  them  the  spirit  of  angry 
controversy,  at  a  time  when  they  are  hastening  to  unity  and  peace  1 
I  am  told  that  some  of  our  newspapers  have  announced  your  inten- 
tion to  publish  an  additional  pamphlet  upon  the  principles  of  your 
Age  of  Reason.  Do  you  think  that  your  pen,  or  the  pen  of  any 
other  man,  can  :inchristianize  the  mass  of  our  citizens,  or  have  you 
hopes  of  converting  a  few  of  them  to  assist  you  in  so  bad  a  cause  1 
We  ought  to  think  ourselves  happy  in  the  enjoyment  of  opinion 
v/ithout  the  danger  of  persecution  by  civil  or  ecclesiastical  law. 

Our  friend,  the  president  of  the  United  States,  has  been  calumni- 
ated for  his  liberal  sentiments,  by  men  who  have  attributed  that 
liberality  to  a  latent  design  to  promote  the  cause  of  infidelity.  This 
and  all  other  slanders  have  been  made  without  a  shadow  of  proof. 
Neither  religion  nor  liberty  can  long  subsist  in  the  tumult  of  alterca- 
tion, and  amidst  the  noise  and  violence  of  faction. 
Felix  qui  cautus 
Adieu. 

SAMUEL  ADAMS. 

Mr.  Thomas  Paine, 


OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  67 

LETTER  VII. 

to  samuel  adams. 

My  dear  and  venerable  friend, 

I  RECEIVED  with  great  pleasure  your  friendly  and  affectionate 
letter  of  Nov.  30th,  and  I  thank  you  also  for  the  frankness  of  it. 
Between  men  in  pursuit  of  trutli,  and  whose  object  is  the  happiness 
of  man  both  here  and  hereafter,  there  ouglit  to  be  no  reserve. 
Even  error  has  a  claim  to  indulgence,  if  not  to  respect,  when  it  is 
believed  to  be  truth.  I  am  obliged  to  you  for  your  affectionate  re- 
membrance of  what  you  style  my  services  in  awakening  the  public 
mind  to  a  declaration  of  independence,  and  supporting  it  after  it 
was  declared.  I  also,  like  you,  have  often  looked  back  on  those 
times,  and  have  thought,  that  if  independence  had  not  been  de- 
clared at  the  time  it  was,  the  public  mind  could  not  have  been 
brought  up  to  it  afterwards.  It  will  immediately  occur  to  you, 
who  were  so  intimately  acquainted  with  the  situation  of  things  at 
that  time,  that  I  allude  to  the  black  times  of  seventy-six;  for  though 
I  know,  and  you  my  friend  also  know,  they  were  no  other  than  the 
natural  consequences  of  the  military  blunders  of  that  campaign, 
the  country  might  have  viewed  them  as  proceeding  from  a  natural 
inability  to  support  its  cause  against  the  enemy,  and  have  sunk  un- 
der the  despondency  of  that  misconceived  idea.  This  was  tlie 
impression  against  which  it  was  necessary  the  country  should  be 
Strongly  animated. 

I  now  come  to  the  second  part  of  your  letter,  on  which  I  shall 
be  as  frank  with  you  as  you  are  with  me.  "  But  (say  you)  when  I 
heard  you  had  turned  your  mind  to  a  defence  of  infidelity,  I  fult 
myself  much  astonished,"  &c.  What,  my  good  friend,  do  you 
call  believing  in  God  infidelity  1  for  that  is  the  great  point  mention- 
ed in  the  Age  of  Reason  against  all  divided  beliefs  and  allegorical 
divinities.  The  Bishop  of  Llandaff  (Dr.  Watson)  not  only  ac- 
knowledges this,  but  pays  me  some  compliments  upon  it,  in  his 
answer  to  the  second  part  of  that  work.  "  There  is  (says  he)  a 
philosophical  sublimity  in  some  of  your  ideas,  when  speaking  of 
the  Creator  of  the  Universe." 

What  then,  my  much  esteemed  friend,  (for  I  do  not  respect  you 
the  less  because  we  differ,  and  that  perhaps  not  much,  in  religious 


68  LETTERS  TO  THE  CITIZENS 

sentiments,)  what,  I  ask,  is  the  thing  called  infidelity  ?  If  we  go 
back  to  your  ancestors  and  mine,  three  or  four  hundred  years  ago, 
for  we  must  have  fathers,  and  grandfathers,  or  we  should  not  have 
been  here,  we  shall  find  them  praying  to  saints  and  virgins,  and  be- 
lieving in  purgatory  and  transubstantialion  ;  and  therefore,  all  of  us 
are  infidels  according  to  our  forefathers'  belief.  If  we  go  back  to 
times  more  ancient,  we  shall  again  be  infidels  according  to  the  be 
lief  of  some  other  forefathers. 

The  case,  my  friend,  is,  that  the  world  has  been  overrun  witl 
fdble  and  creed  of  human  invention,  with  sectaries  of  whole  nation? 
against  other  nations,  and  sectaries  of  those  sectaries  in  each  oi 
them  against  each  other.  Every  sectary,  except  the  Quakers,  have 
been  persecutors.  Those  who  fled  from  persecution,  persecuted  in 
their  turn,  and  it  is  this  confusion  of  creeds  that  has  filled  the  world 
with  persecution,  and  deluged  it  with  blood.  Even  the  depredation 
on  your  commerce  by  the  Barbary  powers,  sprang  from  the  crusades 
of  the  church  agamst  those  powers.  It  was  a  war  of  creed  against 
creed,  each  boasting  of  God  for  its  author,  and  reviling  each  other 
with  the  name  of  infidel.  If  I  do  not  believe  as  you  believe,  it 
proves  that  you  do  not  believe  as  I  believe,  and  this  is  all  that  it 
proves. 

There  is,  however,  one  point  of  union  wherein  all  reHgions  meet, 
and  that  is  the  first  article  of  every  man's  creed,  and  of  every  na- 
tion's creed,  that  has  any  creed  at  all,  I  believe  in  God.  Those 
who  rest  here,  and  there  are  millions  who  do,  cannot  be  wrong  as 
far  as  their  creed  goes.  Those  who  choose  to  go  farther  may  be 
tvrong,  for  it  is  impossible  that  all  can  be  right,  since  there  is  so 
much  contradiction  among  them.  The  first,  therefore,  are,  in  my 
opinion,  on  the  safest  side. 

I  presume  you  are  so  far  acquainted  with  ecclesiastical  history  as 
to  know,  and  the  bishop  who  has  answered  me  has  been  obliged  to 
acknowledge  the  fact,  that  the  Books  that  compose  the  New  Testa- 
ment, were  voted  by  yeas  and  nays  to  be  the  Word  of  God,  as  you 
now  vote  a  law,  by  the  Popish  Councils  of  Nice  and  Laodocia, 
about  fourteen  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  With  respect  to  the 
fact  there  is  no  dispute,  neither  do  I  mention  it  for  the  sake  of  con- 
troversy. This  vote  may  appear  authority  enough  to  some,  and 
not  authority  enough  to  others.  It  is  proper,  however,  that  every 
body  should  know  the  fact. 

With  respect  to  the  Age  of  Reason,  which  you  so  much  con- 


OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  69 

demn,  and  that,  1  believe,  wilhoul  having  read  it,  for  you  say  only 
that  you  heard  of  it,  I  will  inform  you  of  a  circumstance,  because 
you  cannot  know  it  by  other  means. 

I  have  said  in  the  first  page  of  the  first  part  of  that  work,  that  it 
had  long  been  my  intention  to  publish  my  thoughts  upon  religion, 
but  that  I  had  reserved  it  to  a  later  time  of  life.  I  have  now  to  in 
form  you  why  1  wrote  it,  and  published  it  at  the  time  I  did. 

In  the  first  place,  I  saw  my  life  in  continual  danger.  My  friends 
were  falling  as  fast  as  the  guillotine  could  cut  their  heads  ofl',  and 
as  I  expected  every  day  the  same  fate,  I  resolved  to  begin  my  work. 
I  appeared  to  myself  to  be  on  my  death  bed,  for  death  was  on 
every  side  of  me,  and  I  had  no  time  to  lose.  This  accounts  for 
my  writing  at  the  time  I  did,  and  so  nicely  did  the  time  and  inten- 
tion meet,  that  I  had  not  finislied  the  first  part  of  the  work  more 
than  six  hours  before  I  was  arrested  and  taken  to  prison.  Joel 
Barlow  was  with  me,  and  knows  the  fact. 

In  the  second  place,  the  people  of  France  were  running  head- 
long into  atheism,  and  I  had  the  work  translated  and  published  in 
their  own  language,  to  stop  them  in  that  career,  and  fix  them  to  the 
first  article  (as  I  have  before  said)  of  every  man's  creed,  who  has 
any  creed  at  all,  I  believe  in  God.  I  endangered  my  own  life,  in 
the  first  place,  by  opposing  in  the  Convention  the  executing  of  the 
king,  and  laboring  to  show  they  were  trying  the  monarch  and  not 
the  man,  and  that  the  crimes  imputed  to  him  were  the  crimes  of  the 
monarchical  system  ;  and  endangered  it  a  second  time  by  opposing 
atheism,  and  yet  some  of  your  priests,  for  I  do  not  believe  that  all 
are  perverse,  cry  out,  in  the  war-whoop  of  monarchical  priestcraft, 
what  an  infidel !  what  a  wicked  man  is  Thomas  Paine !  They 
might  as  Avell  add,  for  he  believes  in  God,  and  is  against  shedding 
blood. 

But  all  this  war-whoop  of  the  pulpit  has  some  concealed  object. 
Religion  is  not  the  cause,  but  it  is  the  stalking  horse.  They  put  it 
forward  to  conceal  themselves  behind  it.  It  is  not  a  secret  that 
there  has  been  a  party  composed  of  the  leaders  of  the  Federalists, 
for  I  do  not  include  all  Federalists  with  their  leaders,  who  have 
been  working  by  various  means  for  several  years  past,  to  overturn 
the  Federal  Constitution  established  on  the  representative  system, 
and  place  government  in  the  new  world  on  the  corrupt  system  of 
the  old.  To  accomplish  this,  a  large  standing  army  was  necessary, 
and  as  a  pretence  for  such  an  army,  the  danger  of  a  foreign  inva- 


70  LETTERS  TO  THE  CITIZENS 

s:on  must  be  bellowed  forth,  from  the  pulpit,  from  the  press,  and  by 
their  public  orators. 

I  am  not  of  a  disposition  inclined  to  suspicion.  It  is  in  its  na- 
ture a  mean  and  cowardly  passion,  and  upon  the  whole,  even  ad- 
mitting error  into  the  case,  it  is  better,  I  am  sure  it  is  more  gene- 
rous to  be  wrong  on  the  side  of  confidence,  than  on  the  side  of  sus- 
picion. But  I  know  as  a  fact,  that  the  English  Government  dis- 
tributes annually  fifteen  hundred  pounds  sterling  among  the  Pres- 
byterian ministers  in  England,  and  one  hundred  among  those  of 
Ireland  ;*  and  when  I  hear  of  the  strange  discourses  of  some  of 
your  ministers  and  professors  of  colleges  I  cannot,  as  the  Quakers 
say,  find  freedom  in  my  mind  to  acquit  them.  Their  anti-revolu- 
tionary doctrines  invite  suspicion,  even  against  one's  will,  and  in 
spite  of  one's  charity  to  believe  well  of  them. 

As  you  have  given  me  one  Scripture  phrase,  I  will  give  you 
another  for  those  ministers.  It  is  said  in  Exodus,  chapter  xxiii. 
verse  28,  '*  Thou  shalt  not  revile  the  Gods,  nor  curse  the  ruler  of 
thy  people."  But  those  ministers,  such  I  mean  as  Dr.  Emmons, 
curse  ruler  and  people  both,  for  the  majority  are,  politically,  the 
people,  and  it  is  those  who  have  chosen  the  ruler  whom  they  curse. 

As  to  the  first  part  of  the  verse,  that  of  not  reviling  the  Gods, 
it  makes  no  part  of  my  Scripture:  I  have  but  one  God. 

Since  I  began  this  letter,  for  I  write  it  by  piecemeals  as  I  have 
leisure,  I  have  seen  the  four  letters  that  passed  between  you  and 
John  Adams.  In  your  first  letter  you  sa}'.  "  Let  divines  and  phi- 
losophers, statesmen  and  patriots,  unite  their  endeavors  to  renovate 
the  age,  by  inculcating  in  the  minds  of  youth  the  fear  and  love  of 
the  Deify  and  universal  philanthropy.''''  Why,  my  dear  friend, 
this  is  exactly  my  religion,  and  is  the  whole  ol  it.  That  you  may 
have  an  idea  that  the  Age  of  Reason  (for  I  believe  you  have  not 
read  it)  inculcates  this  reverential  fear  and  love  of  Deity,  I  will 
give  you  a  paragraph  from  it. 

"  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  power  ?  We  see  it  m  the  im- 
mensity of  the  Creation.  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  wisdom? 
We  see  it  in  the  unchangeable  order  by  which  the  incomprehensi- 
ble whole  is  governed.  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  munificence? 
We  see  it  in  the  abundancfi  with  which  he  fills  the  earth.     Do  we 

'  There  must  undoubtedly  be  a  very  gross  mistake  in  respect  to  the  amount 
said  to  be  expended;  the  sums  intended  to  be  expressed  were  probably rifteen 
hundred  thousand  and  one  hundred  thousand  pounds.— Ed. 


OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  71 

want  to  conlenipldte  his  mercy  1     We  see  it  in  his  not  withholding 
that  abundance  even  from  the  unthankful." 

As  I  am  fully  with  you  in  your  first  part,  that  respecting  the 
Deity,  so  am  I  in  your  second,  that  of  universal  philanthropy ;  by 
which  I  do  not  mean  merely  the  sentimental  benevolence  of  wishing 
well,  but  the  practical  benevolence  of  doing  good.  We  cannot 
serve  the  Deity  in  the  manner  we  serve  those  who  cannot  do  with- 
out that  service.  He  needs  no  services  from  us.  We  can  add 
nothing  to  eternity.  But  it  is  in  our  power  to  render  a  service  ac 
ccptable  to  him,  and  th.at  is,  not  by  praying,  but  by  endeavoring  to 
make  his  creatures  happy.  A  man  does  not  serve  God  when  he 
prays,  for  it  is  himself  he  is  trying  to  serve ;  and  as  to  hiring  or 
paying  men  to  pray,  as  if  the  Deity  needed  instnaction,  it  is  in  my 
opinion  an  abomination.  One  good  school-master  is  of  more  use 
and  of  more  value  than  a  load  of  such  parsons  as  Dr.  Emmons, 
and  some  others. 

You,  my  dear  and  much  respected  friend,  are  now  far  in  the  vale 
of  years ;  I  have  yet,  I  believe,  some  years  in  store,  for  I  have  a 
good  state  of  health  and  a  happy  mind :  I  take  care  of  both,  by 
nourishing  the  first  with  temperance,  and  the  latter  with  abundance. 

This  I  believe  you  will  allow  to  be  the  true  philosophy  of  life. 
You  will  see  by  my  third  letter  to  the  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
that  I  have  been  exposed  to,  and  preserved  through  many  dangers ; 
but,  inaiead  of  buffeting  the  Deity  with  prayers,  as  if  I  distrusted 
him,  or  must  dictate  to  him,  I  reposed  myself  on  his  protection: 
and  you,  my  friend,  will  find,  even  in  your  last  moments,  jnore 
consolation  in  the  silence  of  resignation  than  in  the  murmuring 
wish  of  prayer. 

In  every  thing  which  you  say  in  your  second  letter  to  John 
Adams,  respecting  our  rights  as  men  and  citizens  in  this  world,  I 
am  perfectly  with  you.  On  other  points  we  have  to  answer  to  our 
Creator  and  not  to  each  other.  The  key  of  heaven  is  not  in  the 
keeping  of  any  sect,  nor  ought  the  road  to  it  to  be  obstructed  by  any. 
Our  relation  to  each  other  in  this  world  is,  as  men,  and  the  man 
who  is  a  friend  to  man  and  to  his  rights,  let  his  religious  opinions 
be  what  they  may,  is  a  good  citizen,  to  whom  I  can  give,  as  I  ought 
to  do,  and -as  every  other  ought,  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  and 
to  none  with  more  hearty  good  will,  my  dear  friend,  than  to  you. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 

Federal  City,  Jan.  1,  1803. 


72  LETTERS  TO  THE  CITIZENS. 


NOTE. 

The  Editor  cannot  resist  the  inclination,  to  give  the  following  quotO' 
Hon  from  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff,  after  the  foregoing  letters. 

"  It  would  give  me  much  uneasiness  to  be  reputed  an  enemy  to 
free  inquiry  in  religious  matters,  or  as  capable  of  being  animated  into 
any  degree  of  personal  malevolence,  against  those  who  differ  from 
me  in  opinion.  On  the  contrary,  1  look  upon  the  right  of  private 
iudgment,  in  every  concern  respecting  God  and  ourselves,  as  superior 
to  the  control  of  human  authority ;  and  have  ever  regarded  free  dis- 
quisition as  the  best  means  of  illustrating  the  doctrine,  and  estab- 
lishing the  truth  of  Christianity.  Let  the  followers  of  Mahomet,  and 
the  zealots  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  sup«port  their  several  religious 
systems,  by  damping  every  effort  of  the  human  intellect  to  pry  into 
the  foundations  of  their  faith !  but  never  can  it  become  a  Christian  to 
be  afraid  of  being  asked  a  reason  of  the  faith  that  is  in  him ;  nor  a 
protestant  to  be  studious  of  enveloping  his  religion  in  mystery  and 
ignorance;  nor  the  Church  of  England,  to  abandon  that  moderation 
by  which  she  permits  every  individual,  et  seniire  quae  velit,  et  qusB 
sentiat  dicere." 


OP    TUE    UNITED    STATES. 


LETTER    VIII. 


It  is  al  .vavs  the  interest  of  a  far  greater  part  of  the  nation  to 
have  a  thing  right  than  to  have  it  wrong ;  and,  therefore,  in  a  coun- 
try whose  government  is  founded  on  the  system  of  election  and  re- 
presentation, the  fate  of  every  party  is  decided  by  its  principles. 

As  this  system  is  the  only  form  and  principle  of  government  by 
which  liberty  can  be  preserved,  and  the  only  one  that  can  embrace 
all  the  varieties  of  a  great  extent  of  country,  it  necessarily  follows, 
that  to  have  the  representation  real,  the  election  must  be  real ;  and 
that  where  the  election  is  a  fiction,  the  representation  is  a  fiction 
also.     Like,  will  always  prochice  like. 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  and  written  concerning  the  conduct 
of  Mr.  Burr,  during  the  late  contest,  in  the  federal  legislature, 
whether  Mr.  Jefierson  or  Mr.  Burr  should  be  declared  President 
of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Burr  has  been  accused  of  intriguing  to 
obtain  the  Presidency.  Whether  this  charge  be  substantiated  or 
not,  makes  little  or  no  part  of  the  purport  of  this  letter.  There  is 
a  point  of  much  higher  importance  to  attend  to  than  any  thing  that 
relates  to  the  individual,  Mr.  Burr:  for  the  great  point  is  not 
whether  Mr.  Burr  has  intrigued,  but  whether  the  legislature  has  in- 
trigued with  him. 

Mr.  Ogdeu,  a  relation  of  one  of  the  senators  of  New  Jersey,  of 
the  same  name,  and  of  the  party  assuming  the  style  of  federalists, 
has  written  a  letter  publisiied  in  the  New  York  papers,  signed  with 
his  name,  the  purport  of  which  is  to  exculpaate  Mr.  Burr  from  the 
charges  brought  against  him.     In  this  letter  he  says, 

"  When  about  to  return  from  Washington,  two  or  three  incmhers 
of  Congress  of  the  federal  party  spoke  to  rae  of  their  views,  as  to 
the  election  of  a  president,  desiring  me  to  converse  with  Colonel 
Burr  on  the  subject,  and  to  ascertain  whether  ha  would  enter  into 
terms.  On  my  return  to  New  York,  I  called  on  Colonel  Burr,  and 
communicated  the  above  to  him.  lie  explicitly  declined  the  expla- 
nation, and  did  neither  propose  nor  agree  to  any  terms." 

How  nearly  is  human  cunning  allied  to  folly  !  The  animals  to 
whom  nature  has  given  the  faculty  we  call  cunning,  know  always 
when  to  use  it,  and  use  it  wisely  ;  but  when  man  descends  to  cun- 
ning, he  blunders  and  betrays. 

Mr.  Ogden's  letter  is  intended  to  exculpate  Mr.  Burr  from  the 

K 


74  LETTERS    TO    THE    CITIZEN'S 

charge  of  intriguing  to  obtain  tlie  presidency  ;  and  the  letter  that 
he  (Ogden)  writes  for  this  purpose,  is  direct  evidence  against  his 
party  in  Congress,  that  they  intrigued  with  Burr  to  obtain  him  for 
President,  and  employed  him  (Ogden)  for  the  purpose.  To  save 
Aaro7i,  he  betrays  Moses,  and  tiien  turns  informer  against  the 
Golden  Calf. 

It  is  but  of  little  importance  to  the  w^orld  to  know  if  Mr.  Burr 
listened  to  an  intriguing  proposal,  but  it  is  of  great  importance  to 
the  constituents  to  know  if  their  representatives  in  Congress  made 
one.  The  ear  can  commit  no  crime,  but  the  tongue  may;  and 
therefore  the  right  policy  is  to  drop  Mr.  Burr  as  being  only  the 
hearer,  and  direct  the  whole  charge  against  the  federal  faction  in 
Congress  as  the  active  original  culprit,  or,  if  the  priests  will  have 
scripture  for  it,  as  the  serpent  that  beguiled  Eve. 

The  plot  of  the  intrigue  was  to  make  Mr.  Burr  President,  on  the 
private  condition  of  his  agreeing  to,  and  entering  mto,  terms  with 
them,  that  is,  with  the  proposers.  Had  then  this  election  been 
made,  the  country,  knowing  nothing  of  this  private  and  illegal  trans- 
action, would  have  supposed,  for  who  could  have  supposed  other- 
wise, that  it  had  a  President  according  to  the  forms,  principles, 
and  intention  of  the  constitution.  No  such  thing.  Every  form, 
principle,  and  intention  of  the  consthution  would  have  been  vio- 
lated ;  and  instead  of  a  President,  it  would  have  had  a  mute,  a 
sort  of  image,  hand-bound  and  tongue-tied,  the  dupe  and  slave  of 
a  party,  placed  on  the  theatre  of  the  United  States,  and  acting  the 
farce  of  President. 

It  is  of  little  importance,  in  a  constitutional  sense,  to  know  what 
the  terms  to  be  proposed  mightbe, because  any  terms  other  than  those 
which  the  constitution  prescribes  to  a  President  is  criminal.  Nei- 
ther do  I  see  how  Mr.  Burr,  or  any  other  person  put  in  the  same 
condition,  could  have  taken  the  oath  prescribed  by  tne  constitution 
to  a  President,  which  is,  "  I  do  solemnly  swear,  (or  affirm,)  that  I 
will  faithfully  execute  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  toill  to  the  best  of  my  ability  preserve,  prefect,  and  defend  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.'''' 

How,  I  ask,  could  such  a  person  have  taken  such  an  oath, 
knowing  at  the  same  time  that  he  had  entered  into  the  Presidency 
on  terms  unknown  in  the  constitution,  and  private,  and  which  would 
deprive  him  of  the  freedom  and  power  of  acting  as  President  of 
the  United  States,  agreeably  to  his  constitutional  oath  ? 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES.  75 

Mr.  Burr,  by  not  agreeing  to  terms,  has  escaped  the  danger  to 
which  they  exposed  him,  and  the  perjury  that  would  have  followed, 
and  also  the  punishment  annexed  thereto.  Had  he  accepted  the 
Presidency  on  terms  unknown  in  the  constitution,  and  private,  and 
had  the  transaction  afterwards  transpired,  (which  it  most  probably 
would,  for  roguery  is  a  thing  difficult  to  conceal,)  it  would  have  pro- 
duced a  sensation  in  the  country  too  violent  to  be  quieted,  and  too 
just  to  be  resisted;  and  in  any  case  the  election  must  have  been 
void. 

But  what  are  we  to  think  of  those  members  of  Congress,  who 
having  taken  an  oath  of  the  same  constitutional  import  as  the  oath 
of  the  President,  violate  that  oath  by  tampering  to  obtain  a  Presi- 
dent on  private  conditions.  If  this  is  not  sedition  against  the  con- 
stitution and  the  country,  it  is  difficult  to  define  what  sedition  in  a 
representative  can  be. 

Say  not  that  this  statement  of  the  case  is  the  effect  of  personal  or 
party  resentment.  No.  It  is  the  effect  of  sincere  concern,  that  such 
corruption,  of  which  this  is  but  a  sample,  should,  in  the  space  of  a 
few  years,  have  crept  into  a  country,  that  had  the  fairest  opportunity 
that  Providence  ever  gave,  within  the  knowledge  of  history,  of 
making  itself  an  illustrious  example  to  the  world. 

What  the  terms  were,  or  were  to  be,  it  is  probable  we  never 
shall  know;  or  what  is  more  probable,  that  feigned  ones,  if  any, 
will  be  given.  But  from  the  conduct  of  the  party  since  that  time, 
we  may  conclude,  that  no  taxes  would  have  been  taken  off,  that 
the  clamor  for  war  would  have  been  kept  up,  new  expenses  incur- 
red, and  taxes  and  offices  increased  inconsequence;  and  among 
the  articles  of  a  private  nature,  that  the  leaders  in  this  seditious 
traffic  were  to  stipulate  with  the  mock  President  for  lucrative  ap- 
pointments for  themselves. 

But  if  these  plotters  against  the  constitution  understood  their 
business,  and  they  bad  been  plotting  long  enough  to  be  masters  of 
it,  a  single  article  would  have  comprehended  every  thing,  which  is, 

That  the  President  (this  made)  should  be  governed  in  all  cases 
whatsoever  by  a  private  junto  appointed  by  themselves. 

They  could  then,  through  the  medium  of  a  mock  President, 
have  negatived  all  bills  which  the  party  in  Congress  could  not 
have  opposed  with  success,  and  reduced  representation  to  a 
nullity. 

The  country  has  been  imposed  upon,  and  the  real  culprits  are 


76  LETTERS    TO    THE    CITIZENS 

but  few ;  and  as  it  is  necessary  for  the  peace,  harmony,  and  honor 
of  the  Union,  to  separate  the  deceiver  from  the  deceived,  the  be- 
trayer from  the  betrayed,  that  men  who  once  were  friends,  and 
that  in  the  worst  of  times,  should  be  friends  again,  it  is  neces- 
sary, as  a  beginning,  that  that  tliis  dark  business  be  brought  to  full 
investigation.  Ogden's  letter  is  direct  evidence  of  the  fact  of 
tampering  to  obtain  a  conditional  President.  He  knows  the  two 
or  three  members  of  Congress  that  commissioned  him,  and  they 
know  who  commissioned  them. 

THOiMAS  PAINE 
Federal  City,  Lovett's  Hotel, 
Jan.  29th,  1803. 


LETTER    IX. 

The  malignant  mind,  like  the  jaundiced  eye,  sees  every  thing 
hrough  a  false  medium  of  its  own  creating.  The  light  of  heaven 
appears  stained  with  yellow  to  the  distempered  sight  of  the  one; 
and  the  fairest  actions  have  the  form  of  crimes  in  the  venomcd 
imagination  of  the  other. 

For  several  months,  both  before  and  after  my  return  to  America, 
in  October  last,  the  apostate  papers,  styling  themselves  federal, 
were  filled  with  paragraphs  and  essays  respecting  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Jefferson  to  me  at  Paris,  and  though  none  of  them  knew  the  contents 
of  the  letter,  nor  the  occasion  of  writing  it,  malignity  taught  them 
to  suppose  it,  and  the  lying  tongue  of  injustice  lent  them  its  aid. 

That  the  public  mny  be  no  longer  imposed  upon  by  federal  apos- 
tacy,  I  will  now  publish  the  letter,  and  the  occasion  of  its  being 
written. 

The  treaty  negociated  in  England  by  John  Jay,  and  ratified  by 
the  Washington  administration,  had  so  disgracefully  surrendered 
the  right  and  freedom  of  the  American  flag,  that  all  the  commerce 
of  the  United  States  on  the  ocean  became  exposed  to  capture,  and 
suffered  in  consequence  of  it.  The  duration  of  the  treaty  was 
limited  to  two  years  after  the  war;  and  consequently,  America 
could  not,  during  that  period,  relieve  herself  from  the  chains  which 
that  treaty  had  fixed  upon  her. 

This  being  the  case,  the  only  relief  that  could  come  must  arise 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES.  77 

out  of  somethiiif!;  originating  in  Europe,  that  would,  in  its  conse- 
quences, extend  to  America.  It  had  long  been  my  opinion  that 
commerce  contained  within  itself  the  means  of  its  own  protection  ; 
but  as  the  time  for  bringing  forward  any  new  system  is  not  always 
happening,  it  is  necessary  to  watch  its  approach,  and  lay  hold  of  it 
before  it  passes  away. 

As  soon  as  the  late  Emperor  Paul  of  Russia  abandoned  his  coali- 
tion with  England,  and  became  a  neutral  power,  this  crisis  of  time, 
and  also  of  circumstances,  was  then  arriving;  and  I  employed  it  in 
arranging  a  plan  for  the  protection  of  the  commerce  of  neutral  na- 
tions during  war,  that  might,  in  its  operation  and  consequences, 
relieve  the  commerce  of  America.  The  plan,  with  the  pieces 
accompanying  it,  consisted  of  about  forty  pages.  The  Citizen 
Bonneville,  with  whom  I  lived  in  Paris,  translated  it  into  French. 
Mr.  Skipwith,  the  American  consul,  Joel  Barlow,  and  myself,  had 
the  translation  printed  and  distributed  as  a  present  to  the  foreign 
ministers  of  all  the  neutral  nations  then  resident  in  Paris.  This 
was  in  the  summer  of  1800. 

It  was  entitled  Maritime  Compact  (in  French  Facte  Maritime.) 
The  plan,  exclusive  of  the  pieces  that  accompanied  it,  consisted  of 
the  following  preamble  and  articles. 

MARITIiME  COMPACT. 

Being  an  Unarmed  Association  of  Nations  for  the  protection  of  the  rights 
and  commerce  of  Nations  that  shall  be  neutral  in  time  of  war. 

Whereas,  the  vexations  and  injuries  to  which  the  rights  and  com- 
merce of  neutral  nations  have  been,  and  continue  to  be,  exposed 
during  the  time  of  maritime  war,  render  it  necessary  to  establish  a 
law  of  nations  for  the  purpose  of  putting  an  end  to  such  vexations 
and  injuries,  and  to  guarantee  to  the  neutral  nations  the  exercise  of 
their  just  rights. 

We,  therefore,  the  undersigned  powers,  form  ourselves  into  an 
association,  and  establish  the  following  as  a  law  of  nations  on  the  seas. 

ARTICLE  I. 

Definition  of  the  rights  of  neutral  nations. 

The  rights  of  nations,  such  as  are  exercised  by  them  in  their 
■ntercourse  with  each  other  in  time  of  peace,  are,  and  of  right  ought 
to  be,  the  rights  of  neutral  nations  at  all  times;  because, 


78  LETTERS  TO  THE  CITIZENS 

First,  Those  rights  not  having  been  abandoned  by  them,  remain 
with  them. 

Secondly,  Because  those  rights  cannot  become  forfeited  or  void, 
in  consequence  of  war  breaking  out  between  two  or  more  other 
nations. 

A  war  of  nation  against  nation  being  exchisively  the  act  of  the 
nations  that  make  the  war,  and  not  the  act  of  the  neutral  nations, 
cannot,  whether  considered  in  itself  or  in  its  consequences,  destro} 
or  diminish  the  rights  of  the  nations  remaining  in  peace. 

ARTICLE  II. 

The  ships  and  vessels  of  nations  that  rest  neuter  and  at  peace 
with  the  world  during  a  war  with  other  nations,  have  a  right  to 
navigate  freely  on  the  seas  as  they  navigated  before  that  war  broke 
out,  and  to  proceed  to  and  enter  the  port  or  ports  of  any  of  the  bel- 
ligerent powers,  toiih  the  consent  of  that  power,  without  being  seiz- 
ed, searched,  visited,  or  any  ways  interrupted,  by  the  nation  or 
nations  with  which  that  nation  is  at  war. 

ARTICLE  in. 

For  the  conservation  of  the  aforesaid  rights,  we,  the  undersigned 
powers,  engaging  to  each  other  our  sacred  faith  and  honor,  declare, 

That  if  any  belligerent  power  shall  seize,  search,  visit,  or  any 
ways  interrupt  any  ship  or  vessel  belonging  to  the  citizens  or  sub- 
jects of  any  of  the  powers  composing  this  association,  then  each  and 
all  of  the  said  undersigned  powers  will  cease  to  import,  and  will  not 
permit  to  be  imported  into  the  ports  or  dominions  of  any  of  the  said 
undersigned  powers,  in  any  ship  or  vessel  whatever,  any  goods, 
wares,  or  merchandize,  produced  or  manufactured  in,  or  exported 
from,  the  dominions  of  the  power  so  offending  against  the  asociation 
hereby  established  and  proclaimed. 

ARTICLE  IV. 

That  all  the  ports  appertaining  to  any  and  all  of  the  powers 
composing  this  association  shall  be  shut  against  the  flag  of  the 
offending  nation. 


OF   THE    UNITED    STATES.  79 

any  of  the  powers  composing  this  association,  to  the  citizens  or 
subjects  of  the  offending  nation,  for  the  term  of  one  year,  or  until 
reparation  be  made.     The  reparation  to  be  times 

the  amount  of  the  damages  sustained. 

ARTICLE  VI. 

If  any  ship  or  vessel  appertaining  to  any  of  the  citizens  or  sub- 
jects of  any  of  the  powers  composing  this  association  shall  be  seized, 
searched,  visited,  or  interrupted,  by  any  belligerent  nation,  or  be 
forcibly  prevented  entering  the  port  of  her  destination,  or  be  seized, 
searched,  visited,  or  interrupted,  in  coming  out  of  such  port,  or  be 
forcibly  prevented  from  proceeding  to  any  new  destination,  or  be 
insulted  or  visited  by  any  agent  from  on  board  any  vessel  of  any 
belligerent  power,  the  government  or  executive  power  of  the  nation 
to  which  the  ship  or  vessel  so  seized,  searched,  visited,  or  interrupt- 
ed belongs,  shall,  on  evidence  of  the  fact,  make  public  proclamation 
of  the  same,  and  send  a  copy  thereof  to  the  government,  or  execu- 
tive, of  each  of  the  powers  composing  this  association,  who  shall 
publish  the  same  in  all  the  extent  of  his  dominions,  together  with  a 
declaration,  that  at  the  expiration  of  days  after 

publication,  the  final  articles  of  this  association  shall  be  put  in  exe- 
cution against  the  offending  nation. 

ARTICLE  VIL 

If  reparation  be  not  made  within  the  space  of  one  year,  the  said 
proclamation  shall  be  renewed  for  one  year  more,  and  so  on. 

ARTICLE  VIIL 

The  association  chooses  for  itself  a  flag  to  be  carried  at  the 
mast  head  conjointly  with  the  national  flag  of  each  nation  composing 
this  association. 

The  flag  of  the  association  shall  be  composed  of  the  same  colors 
as  compose  the  rainbow,  and  arranged  in  the  same  order  as  they 
appear  in  that  phenomenon. 

ARTICLE  IX. 

And  whereas,  it  may  happen  that  one  or  more  of  the  nations 
composing  this  association  may  be,  at  the  time  of  forming  it,  en- 
gaged in  war,  or  become  so  in  future,  in  that  case,  the  ships  and 
vessels  of  such  nation  shall  carry  the  flag  of  the  association  bound 


80  LETTERS    TO    THE    CITIZENS 

round  the  mast,  to  denote  that  the  nation  to  which  she  belongs  is  a 
member  of  the  association  and  a  respecter  of  the  laws. 

N.  B.  This  distinction  in  the  manner  of  carrying  the  flag  is 
merely  for  the  purpose,  that  neutral  vessels  having  the  flag  at  the 
mast  head,  may  be  known  at  first  sight. 

ARTICLE  X. 

And  whereas,  it  is  contrary  to  the  moral  principles  of  neutrality 
and  peace,  that  any  neutral  nation  should  furnish  to  the  belligerent 
powers,  or  any  of  them,  the  means  of  carrying  on  war  against  each 
other  ;  we,  therefore,  the  powers  composing  this  association,  declare 
that  we  will,  each  one  tor  itself,  prohibit  in  our  dominions  the 
exportation  or  transportation  of  military  stores,  comprehending 
gunpowder,  cannon,  and  cannon  balls,  fire  arms  of  all  kinds,  and 
all  kinds  of  iron  and  steel  weapons  used  in  war,  excluding  therefrom 
all  kinds  of  utensils  and  instruments  used  in  civil  or  domestic  life, 
and  every  other  article  that  cannot,  in  its  immediate  state,  be 
employed  in  war. 

Having  thus  declared  the  moral  motives  of  the  foregoing  article, 
we  declare  also  the  civil  and  political  intentions  thereof,  to  wit : 

That  as  belligerent  nations  have  no  right  to  visit  or  search  any 
ship  or  vessel  belonging  to  a  nation  at  peace,  and  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  laws  and  government  thereof,  and  as  all  such  visit  or 
search  is  an  insult  to  the  nation  to  which  such  ship  or  vessel  belongs, 
and  to  the  government  of  the  same,  we,  therefore,  the  powers  com- 
posing this  association,will  take  the  right  of  prohibition  on  ourselves, 
to  whom  it  properly  belongs,  and  by  whom  only  it  can  be  legally 
exercised,  and  not  permit  foreign  nations,  in  a  state  of  war,  to  usurp 
the  right  of  legislating,  by  proclamation,  for  any  of  the  citizens  or 
subjects  of  the  powers  composing  this  association. 

It  is,  therefore,  in  order  to  take  away  all  pretence  of  search  or 
visit,  which,  by  being  offensive,  might  become  a  new  cause  of  war, 
that  we  will  provide  laws,  and  publish  them  by  proclamation,  each 
in  his  own  dominion,  to  prohibit  the  supplying,  or  carrying  to,  the 
belligerent  powers,  or  either  of  them,  the  military  stores,  or  articles 
before  mentioned,  annexing  thereto  a  penalty  to  be  levied  or  inflicted 
upon  any  persons  within  our  several  dominions,  transgressing  the 
same.  And  we  invite  all  persons,  as  well  of  the  belligerent  nations 
as  of  our  own,  or  any  other,  to  give  information  of  any  knowledge 
they  may  have  of  any  transgression  against  the  said  law,  that  the 
offenders  may  be  prosecuted. 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES.  81 

By  this  conduct  we  restore  the  word  contrahand  [contra  and 
ban]  10  its  true  and  oriiiinal  signification,  which  means  against  law 
edict,  or  proclamation ;  and  none  but  the  government  of  a  action 
can  have,  or  can  exercise,  the  right  of  making  laws,  edicts,  or  pro- 
clamations, for  the  conduct  of  its  citizens  or  subjects. 

Now  we,  the  undersigned  powers,  declare  the  aforesaid  articles 
to  be  a  law  of  nations,  at  all  times,  or  until  a  congress  of  nations 
shall  meet  to  form  some  law  more  eflectual. 

And  we  do  recommend  that  immediately  on  the  breaking  out  oi 
war  between  any  two  or  more  nations,  that  deputies  be  appointed 
by  all  the  neutral  nations,  whether  members  ol  this  association  or 
not,  to  meet  in  congress,  in  some  central  place,  to  take  cognizance 
of  any  violations  of  the  rights  of  neutral  nations. 

Signed,  &c. 

For  the  purpose  of  giving  operation  to  the  aforesaid  plan  of  an 
unarmed  association,  the  following  pagraraph  was  subjoined  : 

It  may  be  judged  proper  for  the  order  of  business,  that  the  associ- 
ation of  nations  have  a  President  for  a  term  of  years,  and  the 
Presidency  to  pass  by  rotation,  to  each  of  the  parties  composing  the 
association. 

In  that  case,  and  for  the  sake  of  regularity,  the  first  President  to 
be  the  executive  power  of  the  most  northerly  nation  composing  the 
t!ie  association,  and  his  deputy  or  minister  at  the  congress  to  be 
President  of  the  congress,  and  the  next  most  northerly  to  be  Vice- 
President,  who  shall  succeed  to  the  Presidency,  and  so  on.  The  line 
determining  the  geographical  situation  of  each  to  be  the  latitude  of 
the  capital  of  each  nation. 

If  this  method  be  adopted,  it  will  be  proper  that  the  first  President 
be  nominally  constituted  in  order  to  give  rotation  to  the  rest.  In 
that  case  the  following  article  might  be  added  to  the  foregoing,  viz. 
"  The  constitution  of  the  association  nominates  the  Emperor  Paul 
to  be  first  President  of  the  association  of  nations  for  the  protection 
of  neutral  commerce,  and  the  securing  the  freedom  of  the  seas." 

The  foregoing  plan,  as  I  have  before  mentioned,  was  presented  to 
the  ministers  of  all  neutral  nations  then  in  Paris,  in  the  summer 
of  1800.  Six  copies  were  given  to  the  Russian  general  Springpor- 
ten ;  and  a  Russian  gentleman  who  was  going  to  St.  Petersburg 
took  two,  expressly  for  the  purpose  of  putting  them  into  the  hands 
of  Paul.     I  sent  the  original  manuscript,  in  my  own  hand-writing,. 

L 


82  LETTER  TO  THE    CITIZENS 

to  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  also  wrote  him  four  letters,  dated  the  1st,  4tli, 
6tli,  and  16th  of  October,  1800,  giving  him  an  account  of  what  was 
then  going  on  in  Europe,  respecting  neutral  commerce. 

The  case  was,  that  in  order  to  compel  the  English  government 
to  acknowledge  the  rights  of  neutral  commerce,  and  that  froe  ships 
make  free  goods,  the  Emperor  Paul,  in  the  month  of  September 
following  the  publication  of  the  plan,  shut  all  the  ports  of  Russia 
against  England.  Sweden  and  Denmark  did  the  same  by  their 
ports,  and  Denmark  shut  up  Hamburgh.  Prussia  shut  up  the  Elbe 
and  the  Weser.  The  ports  of  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Naples  were  shut 
up,  and  in  general,  all  the  ports  of  Italy,  except  Venice,  which  the 
Emperor  of  Germany  held,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  untimely 
death  of  Paul,  a  law  of  nations,  founded  on  the  authority  of  nations, 
for  establishing  the  rights  of  neutral  commerce  and  the  freedom  of 
the  seas,  would  have  been  proclaimed,  and  the  government  of 
England  must  have  consented  to  that  law,  or  the  nation  must  have 
lost  its  commerce :  and  the  consequence  to  America  would  have 
been,  that  such  a  law  would  in  a  great  measure,  if  not  entirely,  have 
released  her  from  the  injuries  of  Jay's  treaty. 

Of  all  these  matters  I  informed  Mr.  Jefferson.  This  was  before 
he  was  President,  aud  the  letter  he  wrote  me  after  he  was  Presi- 
dent was  in  answer  to  those  I  had  written  to  him,  and  the  manuscript 
copy  of  the  plan  I  had  sent  him.     Here  follows  the  letter. 

Wnskingtoji,  3Iarch  18th,  1801. 
Dear  Sir : 

Your  letters  of  Oct.  1st,  4th,  6th,  and  16th,  came  duly  to  hand, 
and  the  papers  which  they  covered  were,  according  to  your  per- 
mission, published  in  the  nevv'spapers,  and  in  a  pamphlet,  and  under 
your  own  name.*  These  papers  contain  precisely  our  principles, 
and  I  hope  they  will  be  generally  recognized  here.  Determined  as 
we  are  to  avoid,  if  possible,  wasting  the  energies  of  our  people  in 
war  and  destruction,  we  shall  avoid  implicating  ourselves  with  the 
powers  of  Europe,  even  in  support  of  principles  which  we  mean  to 
pursue.  They  have  so  many  other  interests  different  from  ours, 
that  we  must  avoid  being  entangled  in  them.  We  believe  we  can 
enforee  those  principles  as  to  ourselves  by  peaceable  means,  now 

*  The  plan,  with  the  papers  accompanying  it,  were  published  by  S.  H, 
■Smith,  of  the  Federal  City. 


OP    'iHE    UNITED    STATES.  83 

that  we  are  likely  to  have  our  public  councils  detached  from  foreign 
views.  The  return  of  our  citizens  from  the  phrcnzy  into  which 
they  had  been  wrought,  partly  by  ill  conduct  in  France,  partly  by 
artifices  practiced  upon  them,  is  almost  entire,  and  will,  I  believe, 
become  quite  so.  But  these  details,  too  minute  and  long  for  a 
letter,  w\]\  be  better  developed  by  Mr.  Dawson,  the  bearer  of  this, 
a  member  of  the  late  congress,  to  whom  I  refer  you  for  them.  He 
goes  in  the  INIaryland  sloop  of  war,  which  will  wait  a  few  days  at 
Havre  to  receive  his  letters  to  be  written  on  his  arrival  at  Paris. 
You'expressed  a  wish  to  get  a  passage  to  this  country  in  a  public 
vessel.  Mr.  Dawson  is  charged  with  orders  to  the  captain  of  the 
Maryland  to  receive,  and  accommodate  you  back  if  you  can  be 
ready  to  depart  at  such  a  short  warning.  Rob.  R.  Livingston  is 
appointed  minister  plenipotentiary  to  the  republic  of  France,  but 
will  not  leave  this,  till  we  receive  the  ratification  of  the  convention 
by  Mr.  Dawson.  I  am  in  hopes  you  will  find  us  returned  generally 
to  sentiments  worthy  of  former  times.  In  these  it  will  be  j'our 
glory  to  have  steadily  labored,  and  with  as  much  effect  as  any  man 
living.  That  you  may  long  live  to  continue  your  useful  labors  and 
to  reap  the  reward  in  the  thankfulness  of  nations,  is  my  sincere 
praver.  Accept  assurances  of  my  high  esteem  and  affectionate 
attachments. 

TH.  JEFFERSON. 

This,  citizens  of  the  United  States,  is  the  letter  about  which  the 
leaders  and  tools  of  the  federal  faction,  without  knowing  its  contents 
or  the  occasion  of  writing  it,  have  wasted  so  many  malignant  false- 
hoods. It  is  a  letter  which,  on  account  of  its  wise  economy  and 
peaceable  principles,  and  its  forbearance  to  reproach,  will  be  read 
by  every  good  man  and  every  good  citizen  with  pleasure,  and  the 
faction,  mortified  at  its  appearance,  will  have  to  regret  that  they 
forced  it  into  publication.  The  least  atonement  they  can  now  offer 
is  to  make  the  letter  as  public  as  they  have  made  their  own  infamy, 
and  learn  to  lie  no  more. 

The  same  injustice  they  showed  to  Mr.  Jefferson  they  showed  to 
me.  I  had  employed  myself  in  Europe,  and  at  my  own  expense, 
in  forming  and  promoting  a  plan  that  would,  in  its  operation,  have 
benefited  the  commerce  of  America  ;  and  the  federal  faction  here 
invented  and  circulated  an  account  in  the  papers  they  employ,  that 
I  had  given  a  plan  to  the  French  for  burning  all  the  towns  on  the 


84  LETTERS    TO   THE    CITIZENS 

coast  from  Savannah  to  Baltimore.  Were  I  to  prosecute  them  foi 
this,  and  I  do  not  promise  that  I  will  not,  (for  the  liberty  of 
the  press  is  not  the  liberty  of  lying,)  there  is  not  a  federal  judge, 
not  even  one  of  midnight  appointment,  but  must,  from  the  na- 
ture of  the  case,  be  obliged  to  condenm  them.  The  faction, 
however,  cannot  complain  ;  they  have  not  been  restrained  in  any 
thing.  They  have  had  their  full  swing  of  lying  uncontradicted  ; 
they  have  availed  themselves,  unopposed,  of  all  the  arts  hypocrisy 
could  devise ;  and  the  event  has  been,  what,  in  all  such  cases  it 
ever  will,  and  ought  to  be,  the  ruin  of  themselves. 

The  characters  of  the  late  and  present  administrations  are  now 
sufficiently  marked,  and  the  adherents  of  each  keep  up  the  distinc- 
tion. The  former  administration  rendered  itself  notorious  by  out- 
rage, coxcombical  parade,  false  alarms,  a  continued  increase  of 
taxes,  and  an  unceasing  clamor  for  war ;  and  as  every  vice  has  a 
virtue  opposed  to  it,  the  present  administration  moves  on  the  direct 
contrary  line.  The  question,  therefore,  at  elections,  is  not  properly 
a  question  upon  persons,  but  upon  principles.  Those  who  are  for 
peace,  moderate  taxes,  and  mild  government,  will  vote  for  the 
administration  that  conducts  itself  upon  those  principles,  in  what- 
ever hands  that  administration  n)ay  be. 

There  are  in  the  United  States,  and  particularly  in  the  middle 
states,  several  religious  sects,  whose  leading  moral  principle  is 
PEACE.  It  is,  therefore,  impossible  that  such  persons,  consistently 
with  the  dictates  of  that  principle,  can  vote  for  an  administration 
that  is  clamorous  for  war.  When  moral  principles,  rather  than 
persons,  are  candidates  for  power,  to  vote  is  to  perform  a  moral 
duty,  and  not  to  vote  is  to  neglect  a  duty. 

That  persons  who  are  hunting  after  places,  offices,  and  contracts, 
should  be  advocates  for  war,  taxes,  and  extravagance,  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at ;  but  that  so  large  a  portion  of  the  people  who  had 
nothing  to  depend  upon  but  their  industry,  and  no  other  public 
prospect  but  that  of  paying  taxes,  and  bearing  the  burden,  should 
be  advocates  for  the  same  measures,  is  a  thoughtlessness  not  easily 
accounted  for.  But  reason  is  recovering  her  empire,  and  the  fog 
of  delusion  is  clearing  awa}'. 

THOMAS    PAINE. 

Bordentown,  on  the  Delaware^ 
New  Jersey,  April  21.  1803. 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES.  85 


LETTER    X. 


Religion  and  war  is  the  cry  of  the  federalists ;  morality  and 
peace  the  voice  of  republicans.  The  union  of  morality  and  peace 
is  congenial ;  but  that  of  religion  and  war  is  a  paradox,  and  the 
solution  of  it  is  hypocrisy. 

The  leaders  of  the  federalists  have  no  judgment ;  their  plans 
no  consistency  of  parts ;  and  want  of  consistency  is  the  natural 
consequence  of  want  of  principle. 

They  exhibit  to  the  world  the  curious  spectacle  of  an  opposition 
withous  a  cause,  and  conduct  without  system.  Were  they,  as  doc- 
tors, to  prescribe  medicine  as  they  practise  politics,  they  would 
poison  their  patients  with  destructive  compounds. 

There  are  not  two  things  more  opposed  to  each  other  than  war 
and  religion  ;  and  yet,  in  the  double  game  those  leaders  have  to 
play,  the  one  is  necessarily  the  theme  of  their  politics,  and  the 
other  the  text  of  their  sermons.  The  week  day  orator  of  Mars, 
and  the  Sunday  preacher  of  Federal  Grace,  play,  like  gamblers, 
into  each  other's  hands,  and  this  they  call  religion. 

Though  h^'pocricy  can  counterfeit  every  virtue,  and  become  the 
associate  of  every  vice,  it  requires  a  great  dexterity  of  craft  to 
give  it  the  power  of  deceiving.  A  painted  sun  may  glisten  but  it 
cannot  warm.  For  hypocrisy  to  personate  virtue  successfully  it 
must  know  and  feel  what  virtue  is,  and  as  it  cannot  long  do  this  it 
cannot  long  deceive.  When  an  orator,  foaming  for  war,  breathes 
forth  in  another  sentence  a  plaintive  piety  of  words,  he  may  as 
well  write  hypocrisy  on  his  front. 

The  late  attempt  of  the  federal  leaders  in  congress  (for  they 
acted  without  the  knowledge  of  their  constituents)  to  plunge  the 
country  into  war,  merits  not  only  reproach,  but  indignation.  It 
was  madness,  conceived  in  ignorance  and  acted  in  wickedness. 
The  head  and  the  heart  went  partners  in  the  crime. 

A  neglect  of  punctuality  in  the  performance  of  a  treaty  is  made 
a  cause  of  war  by  the  Barbary  powers,  and  of  remonstrance  and 
explanation  by  civilized  powers.  The  Mahometans  of  Barbary 
negociate  by  the  sword — they  seize  first,  and  expostulate  afterwards  ; 
and  the  federal  leaders  have  been  laboring  to  barbarize  the  United 
States  by  adopting  the  practice  of  the  Barbary  states,  and  this  they 
call  honor.     Let  their  honor  and  their  hypocrisy  go  weep  together, 


86  LETTERS    TO    THE    CITIZENS 

for  both  are  defeated.  The  present  adiuinistration  is  too  mora] 
for  hypocrites,  and  too  economical  for  pubhc  spendthrifts. 

A  man,  tlie  least  acquainted  with  diplomatic  affairs,  must  know 
tliat  a  neglect  in  punctuality  is  not  one  of  the  legal  causes  of  war, 
unless  that  neglect  be  confirmed  by  a  refusal  to  perform  ;  and  even 
then  it  depends  upon  circumstances  connected  with  it.  The  world 
would  be  in  continual  quarrels  and  war,  and  commerce  be  annihi- 
lated, if  Algerine  policy  was  the  law  of  nations.  And  were  America, 
instead  of  becoming  an  example  to  the  old  world  of  good  and  moral 
government  and  civil  manners,  or,  if  they  like  it  better,  of  gentle- 
manly' conduct  towards  other  nations,  to  set  up  the  character  of 
ruffian,  that  of  ioord  and  bloio,  and  the  hloic  first,  and  thereby  give 
the  example  of  pulling  down  the  little  that  civilization  has  gained 
upon  barbarism,  her  independence,  instead  of  being  an  honor  and 
a  blessing,  would  become  a  curse  upon  the  world  and  upon  herself. 

The  conduct  of  the  Barbary  powers,  though  unjust  in  principle, 
is  suited  to  their  prejudices,  situation,  and  circumstances  The 
crusades  of  the  church  to  exterminate  them,  fixed  in  their  minds  the 
unobliterated  belief  that  every  Christian  power  was  their  mortal 
enemy.  Their  religious  prejudices,  therefore,  suggest  the  policy, 
wliich  their  situation  and  circumstances  protect  them  in.  Asa 
people,  they  are  neitlier  commei-cial  nor  agricultural,  they  neither 
import  nor  export;  have  no  property  floating  on  the  seas,  nor  ships 
and  cargoes  in  the  ports  of  foreign  nations.  No  retaliation,  there- 
fore, can  be  acted  upon  them,  and  they  sin  secure  from  punishment. 

But  this  is  not  the  case  with  the  United  States.  If  she  sins  as  a 
Barbary  power  she  must  answer  for  it  as  a  civilized  one.  Her 
commerce  is  continually  passing  on  the  seas  exposed  to  capture, 
and  her  ships  and  cargoes  in  foreign  ports  to  detention  and  reprisal. 
An  act  of  war  committed  by  her  in  the  Mississippi,  would  produce 
a  war  against  the  commerce  of  the  Atlantic  States,  and  the  latter 
would  have  to  curse  the  policy  that  provoked  the  former.  In  every 
point,  therefore,  in  which  the  character  and  interest  of  the  United 
States  be  considered,  it  would  ill  become  her  to  set  an  example 
contrary  to  the  policy  and  custom  of  civilized  powers,  and  prac- 
tised only  by  the  Barbary  powers,  that  of  striking  before  she 
expostulates. 

But  can  any  man,  calling  himself  a  legislator,  and  supposed  by 
his  constituents  to  know  something  of  his  duty,  be  so  ignorant  as  to 
imagine  that  seizing  on  New  Orleans  would  finish  the  affair  or  even 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES.  87 

contribute  towards  it.  On  the  contrary  it  would  have  made  it  worse. 
The  treaty  right  of  doposite  at  New  Orleans,  and  the  right  of  the 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  into  the  Gulph  of  Mexico,  are  distant 
things.  New  Orleans  is  more  than  an  hundred  miles  in  the  country 
from  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and,  as  a  place  of  deposite,  is  of  no 
value  if  the  mouth  of  the  river  be  shut,  which  either  France  or 
Spain  could  do,  and  which  our  possession  of  New  Orleans  could 
neither  prevent  or  remove.  New  Orleans  in  our  possession,  by  an 
act  of  hostility,  would  have  become  a  blockaded  port,  and  conse- 
quently of  no  value  to  the  western  people  as  a  place  of  deposite. 
Since,  therefore,  an  interruption  had  arisen  to  the  commerce  of  the 
western  states,  and  until  the  matter  could  be  brought  to  a  fair  ex- 
planation, it  was  of  less  injury  to  have  the  port  shut  and  the  river 
open,  than  to  have  the  river  shut  and  the  port  in  our  possession. 

That  New  Orleans  could  be  taken,  required  no  stretch  of  policy 
to  plan,  nor  spirit  of  enterprize  to  affect.  It  was  like  marching 
behind  a  man  to  knock  him  down:  and  the  dastardly  slyness  of 
such  an  attack  would  have  stained  the  fame  of  the  United  States. 
Where  there  is  no  danger,  cowards  are  bold,  and  captain  Bobadils 
are  to  be  found  in  the  senate  as  well  as  on  the  stage.  Even  Gover- 
neur,  on  such  a  march,  dare  have  shown  a  leg. 

The  people  of  the  western  country  to  whom  the  Mississippi  serves 
as  an  inland  sea  to  their  commerce,  must  be  supposed  to  understand 
the  circumstances  of  that  commerce  better  than  a  man  who  is  a 
stranger  to  it ;  and  as  they  have  shown  no  approbation  of  the  war- 
whoop  measures  of  the  federal  senators,  it  becomes  presumptive 
evidence  they  disprove  them.  This  is  a  new  mortification  for  those 
war-whoop  politicians;  for  the  case  is,  that  finding  themselves 
losing  ground  and  whhering  away  in  the  Atlantic  states,  they  laid 
hold  of  the  affair  of  New  Orleans,  in  the  vain  hope  of  rooting  and 
reinforcing  themselves  in  the  western  states;  and  they  did  this 
without  perceiving  that  it  was  one  of  those  ill  judged  hypocritical 
expedients  in  politics,  that  whether  it  succeeded  or  failed  the  event 
would  be  the  same.  Had  their  motion  succeeded,  it  would  have 
endangered  the  commerce  of  the  Atlantic  states  and  ruined  their 
reputation  there ;  and  on  the  other  hand  the  attempt  to  make  a 
tool  of  the  western  people  was  so  badly  concealed  as  to  extinguish 
all  credit  with  them. 

But  hypocrisy  is  a  vice  of  a  sanguine  constitution.  It  flatters 
and   promises  itself  every  thing;    and  it  has  yet  to  learn,  with 


88  LETTERS    TO    THE    CITIZENS 

respect  to  moral  and  political  reputation  it  is  less  dangerous  to 
offend  than  to  deceive. 

To  the  measures  of  administration,  supported  by  the  firmness 
and  integrity  of  the  majority  in  congress,  the  United  States  owe, 
as  far  as  human  means  are  concerned,  the  preservation  of  peace, 
and  of  national  honor.  The  confidence  which  the  western  people 
reposed  in  the  government  and  their  representatives  is  rewarded 
with  success.  They  are  reinstated  in  their  rights  with  the  least 
possible  loss  of  time ;  and  their  harmony  with  the  people  of  New 
Orleans,  so  necessary  to  the  prosperity  of  the  United  States,  wliich 
would  have  been  broken,  and  the  seeds  of  discord  sown  in  its  place, 
had  hostilities  been  preferred  to  accommodation,  remains  unim- 
paired. Have  the  federal  ministers  of  the  church  meditated  on 
these  matters  1  and  laying  aside,  as  they  ought  to  do,  their  elec- 
tioneering and  vindictive  prayers  and  sermons,  returned  thanks  that 
peace  is  preserved,  and  commerce  without  the  stain  of  blood. 

In  the  pleasing  contemplation  of  this  state  of  things  the  mind,  by 
comparison,  carries  itself  back  to  those  days  of  uproar  and  extrava- 
gance that  marked  the  career  of  the  former  administration,  and 
decides,  by  the  unstudied  impulse  of  its  own  feelings,  that  something 
must  then  have  been  wrong.  Why  was  it,  that  America,  formed 
for  happiness,  and  remote  by  situation  and  circumstances  from  the 
troubles  and  tumults  of  the  European  world,  became  plunged  into 
its  vortex  and  contaminated  with  its  crimes'?  The  answer  is  easy. 
Those  who  were  then  at  the  head  of  affairs  were  apostates  from 
the  principles  of  the  revolution.  Raised  to  an  elevation  they  had 
not  a  right  to  expect,  nor  judgment  to  conduct,  they  became  like 
feathers  in  the  air,  and  blown  about  by  every  puff  of  passion  or 
conceit. 

Candor  would  find  some  apology  for  their  conduct  if  want  of 
;,Tidgraent  was  their  only  defect.  But  error  and  crime,  though  often 
alike  in  their  features,  are  distant  in  their  characters  and  in  their 
origin.  The  one  has  its  source  in  the  v/eakness  of  the  head,  the 
other  in  tlie  badness  of  the  heart,  and  the  coalition  of  the  two, 
describes  the  former  administration. 

Had  no  injurious  consequences  arisen  from  the  conduct  of  that 
administration,  it  might  have  passed  for  error  or  imbecility,  and 
been  permitted  to  die  and  be  forgotten.  The  grave  is  kind  to 
innocent  offence.  But  even  innocence,  when  it  is  a  cause  of  injury 
ought  to  undergo  an  inquiry. 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


The  country,  during  the  time  of  tlie  former  administration,  was 
kept  in  continual  agitation  and  alarm ;  and  that  no  investigation 
might  be  made  into  its  conduct  it  entrenched  itself  witliin  a  magic 
circle  of  terror,  and  called  it  a  sedifion  law.  Violent  and  mys- 
terious in  its  measures  and  arrogant  in  its  manners,  it  affected  to 
disdain  information,  and  insulted  the  principles  that  raised  it  from 
obscurity.  John  Adams  and  Timothy  Pickering  were  men  whom 
nothing  but  the  accidents  of  the  times  rendered  visible  on  the  politi- 
cal horizon.  Elevation  turned  their  heads,  and  public  indignation 
hath  cast  them  to  the  ground.  But  an  inquiry  into  the  conduct 
and  measures  of  that  administration  is  nevertheless  necessary. 

The  country  was  put  to  great  expense.  Loans,  taxes,  and 
standing  armies  became  the  standing  order  of  the  day.  The  militia, 
said  Secretary  Pickering,  are  not  to  be  depended  upon,  and  fifty 
thousand  men  must  be  raised.  For  what]  no  cause  to  justify  such 
measures  has  yet  appeared.  No  discovery  of  such  a  cause  has  yet 
been  made.  The  pretended  sedition  law  shut  up  the  sources  ot 
investigation,  and  the  precipitate  flight  of  John  Adams  closed  the 
scene.     But  the  matter  ought  not  to  sleep  here. 

It  is  not  to  gratify  resentment,  or  encourage  it  in  others,  that  I 
enter  upon  this  subject.  It  is  not  in  the  power  of  man  to  accuse 
me  of  a  persecuting  spirit.  But  some  explanation  ought  to  be  had. 
The  motives  and  objects  respecting  the  extraordinary  and  expensive 
measures  of  the  former  administration  ought  to  be  known.  The 
sedition  law,  that  shield  of  the  moment,  prevented  it  then,  and  jus- 
tice demands  it  now.  If  the  public  have  been  imposed  upon,  it  is 
proper  they  should  know  it,  for  where  judgment  is  to  act,  or  a 
choice  is  to  be  made,  knowledge  is  first  necessary.  The  concilia- 
tion of  parties,  if  it  does  not  grow  out  of  explanation,  partakes  of 
the  character  of  collusion  or  indifference. 

There  has  been  guilt  somewhere ;  and  it  is  better  to  fix  it  where 
it  belongs,  and  separate  the  deceiver  from  the  deceived,  than  that 
suspicion,  the  bane  of  society,  should  range  at  large,  and  sour  the 
public  mind.  The  military  measures  that  were  proposed  and 
carrying  on  during  the  former  administration,  could  not  have  for 
their  object  the  defence  of  the  country  against  invasion.  This  is  a 
case  that  decides  itself;  for  it  is  self  evident,  that  while  the  war 
raged  in  Europe,  neither  France  nor  England  could  spare  a  man  to 
send  to  America.  The  object,  therefore,  must  be  something  at 
home,  and  that  something  was  the  overthrow  of  the  representative 


90  LETTERS    TO    THE    CITIZENS 

system  of  government,  for  it  could  be  nothing  else.  But  the  plot, 
ters  got  into  confusion  and  became  enemies  to  each  other.  Adams 
hated  andwas  jealous  of  Hamilton,  and  Hamilton  hated  and  despised 
both  Adams  aud  Washington.  Surly  Timothy  stood  aloof;  as  he 
did  at  the  affair  of  Lexington,  and  the  part  that  fell  to  the  public 
was  to  pay  the  expense. 

But  ought  a  people  who,  but  a  k\v  years  ago,  were  fighting  the 
battles  of  the  world,  for  liberty  had  no  home  but  here,  ought  such 
a  people  to  stand  quietly  by  and  see  that  liberty  undermined  by 
apostacy  and  overthrown  by  intrigue  1  Let  the  tombs  of  the  slain 
recall  their  recollection,  and  the  forethought  of  what  their  children 
are  to  be,  revive  and  fix  in  their  hearts  the  love  of  liberty. 

If  the  former  administration  can  justify  its  conduct,  give  it  the 
opportunity. '  The  manner  in  which  John  Adams  disappeared  from 
the  government  renders  an  inquiry  the  more  necessary.  He  gave 
some  account  of  himself,  lame  and  confused  as  it  was,  to  certain 
eastern  wise  men  who  came  to  pay  homage  to  him  on  his  birthday. 
But  if  he  thought  it  necessary  to  do  this,  ought  he  not  to  have  ren- 
dered an  account  to  the  public.  They  had  a  right  to  expect  it  of 
him.  In  that  tete  a  tete  account,  he  says,  "  Some  measures  were 
the  eflect  of  imperious  necessity,  much  against  my  inclination." 
What  measures  does  Mr.  Adams  mean,  and  what  is  the  imperious 
necessity  to  which  he  alludes  ?  "  Others  (says  he)  were  measures 
of  the  legislature,  which,  although  approved  when  passed,  were 
never  previously  proposed  or  recommended  by  me."  What  mea- 
sures, it  may  be  asked,  were  those,  for  the  public  have  a  right  to 
know  the  conduct  of  their  representatives?  "  Some  (says  he)  left 
to  my  discretion  were  never  executed,  because  no  necessity  for  them, 
in  my  judgment,  ever  occurred." 

What  does  this  dark  apology,  mixed  with  accusation,  amount  to, 
but  to  increase  and  confirm  the  suspicion  that  something  was  wrong? 
Administration  only  was  possessed  of  foreign  official  information, 
and  it  was  only  upon  that  information  communicated  by  him  pub- 
licly or  privately,  or  to  congress,  that  congress  could  act,  and  it  is 
not  in  the  power  of  Mr.  Adams  to  show,  from  the  condition  of  the 
belligerent  powers,  that  any  imperious  necessity  called  for  the  war-  . 
like  and  expensive  measures  of  his  administration. 

What  the  correspondence  between  administration  and  Rufus 
Kmg  in  London,  or  Quincy  Adams  in  Holland,  or  Berlin,  might  be, 
is  but  little  known.     The  public  papers  have  told  us  that  the  former 


OF    TUE    UNITED    STATES.  91 

became  cup-bearer  from  the  London  underwriters  to  captain  Trux- 
ton,  for  wiiich,  as  minister  from  a  neutral  nation,  be  ought  to  have 
been  censured.  It  is,  however  a  feature  tliat  marks  tlie  poUtics  of 
the  minister,  and  hints  at  the  character  of  the  correspondence. 

I  know  that  it  is  the  opinion  of  several  members  of  both  houses 
of  congress,  that  an  inquiry,  with  respect  to  the  conduct  of  the  late 
administration,  ought  to  be  gone  into.  The  convulsed  state  into 
which  the  country  has  been  thrown,  will  be  best  settled  by  a  full  and 
fair  exposition  of  the  conduct  of  that  administration,  and  the  causes 
and  object  of  that  conduct.  To  be  deceived,  or  to  remain  deceived, 
can  be  the  interest  of  no  man  who  seeks  the  public  good ;  and  it  is 
the  deceiver  only,  or  one  interested  in  the  deception,  that  can  wish 
to  preclude  enquiry. 

The  suspicion  against  the  late  administration  is,  that  it  was  plot- 
ting to  overturn  the  representative  system  of  government,  and  that 
it  spread  alarms  of  invasions  that  had  no  foundation,  as  a  pretence 
for  raising  and  establishing  a  military  force  as  the  means  of  accom- 
plishing that  object. 

The  law,  called  the  sedition  law,  enacted,  that  "  If  any  person 
should  write  or  publish,  or  cause  to  be  written  o;.  published,  any 
libel  (without  defining  what  a  libel  is)  agamst  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  or  either  houses  of  congress,  or  against  the  president, 
he  should  be  punished  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  two  thousand  dollars, 
and  by  imprisonment  not  exceeding  two  years." 

But  it  is  a  much  greater  crime  for  a  president  to  plot  against  a 
constitution  and  the  liberties  of  the  people,  than  for  an  individual 
to  j)lot  against  a  president ;  and  consequently,  John  Adams  is  ac- 
countable to  the  public  for  his  conduct,  as  the  individuals  under  his 
administration  were  to  the  sedition  law. 

The  object,  however,  of  an  enquiry,  in  this  case,  is  not  to  punish, 
but  to  satisfy ;  and  to  show,  by  example,  to  future  administrations, 
that  an  abuse  of  power  and  trust,  however  disguised  by  appear- 
ances, or  rendered  plausible  by  pretence,  is  one  time  or  other  to  be 
accounted  for. 

THOMAS    PAINE. 

Bordentown,  on  the  Delaware, 
New  Jersey,  March  12,  1803. 


THE  WILL  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


The  People  of  the  State  of  NcivYorJc,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  Free 
and  Independent,  to  all  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come,  or 
may  concern,  send  greeting  : 

Know  yk,  That  the  annexed  is  a  true  copy  of  the  Will  of 
THOMAS  PAINE,  deceased,  as  recorded  in  'the  office  of  the 
surrogate,  in  and  for  the  city  and  county  of  New  York.  In  testi- 
mony whereof,  we  have  caused  tiie  seal  of  office  of  our  said  surro- 
gate to  be  hereunto  affixed.  Witness,  Silvanus  Miller,  Esq.,  sur- 
rogate of  said  county,  at  the  city  of  New  York,  the  twelllh  day  of 
July,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  nine, 
and  of  our  Independence  the  thirty-fourth. 

SILUANUS  MILLER. 

The  last  \V  ill  and  Testament  of  me,  the  subscriber,  Thomas 
Paine,  reposing  confidence  in  my  Creator  God,  and  in  no  other  be- 
ing, for  I  know  of  no  other,  nor  believe  in  any  other.  I,  Thomas 
Paine,  of  the  State  of  New  York,  author  of  the  work  entitled  Corn- 
won  Sense,  written  in  Philadelphia,  in  1775,  and  published  in  that 
city  the  beginning  of  January,  1776,  which  awaked  America  to  a 
declaration  of  Independence  on  the  fourth  of  July  following,  which 
was  as  fast  as  the  work  could  spread  through  such  an  extensive 
country  ;  author  also  of  the  several  numbers  of  the  American  Cri- 
sis, thirteen  in  all ;  published  occasionally  during  the  progress  of 
the  revolutionary  war — the  last  is  on  the  peace ;  author  also  of 
Rights  of  Man,  parts  the  fii'st  and  second,  written  and  publislied  in 
London,  in  1791  and  1792  ;  author  also  of  a  work  on  religion.  Age 
of  Reason,  parts  the  first  and  second.  N.  B.  I  have  a  third  part  by 
me  in  manuscript,  and  an  answer  to  the  bishop  of  Llandaff;  author 
also  of  a  work,  lately  published,  entitled  Examination  of  the  Pas- 
sages hi  the  New  Testament,  Quoted  from  the  Old,  and  called 
Prophecies  concerning  Jesus  Christ,  and  showing  there  arc  no 
Prophecies  of  any  such  Person;  author  also  of  several  other 
works  not  here  enumerated,  Dissertations  on  First  Principles  of 
Government, — Decline  and  Fall  of  the  English  System  of  Finance 
— Agrarian  Justice,  &,c.  &,c.,  make  this  my  last  Will  and  Testa- 
ment, that  is  to  say :  I  give  and  bequeath  to  my  executors  herein- 
after appointed,  Walter  Morton  <?nd  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  thirty 
shares  I  hold  in  the  New  York  Phoenix  Insurance  Company,  which 


94  U-ILL  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 

cost  me  fourteen  hundred  and  seventy  dollars,  they  are  worth  now 
upwards  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  and  all  my  moveable  efiects, 
and  also  the  money  that  may  be  in  my  trunk  or  elsewhere  at  the 
time  of  my  decease,  paying  thereout  the  expenses  of  my  funeral, 
i\  TRUST  as  to  the  said  shares,  moveables,  and  money  for  Margaret 
Brazier  Bonneville,  wife  of  Nicholas  Bonneville,  of  Paris,  for  her 
own  sole  and  separate  use,  and  at  her  own  disposal,  notwithstanding 
her  coverture.  As  to  my  farm  in  New  Rochelle,  I  give,  devise,  and 
bequeath  the  same  to  my  said  executors,  Walter  Morton  and 
Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  and  to  the  survivor  of  them,  his  heirs 
and  assigns  forever,  in  trust  nevertheless,  to  sell  and  dispose 
of  the  north  side  thereof,  now  in  the  occupation  of  Andrew  A. 
De&n,  beginning  at  the  west  end   of  the  orchard,  and_  running  in 

a  line  with  the  land  sold  to Coles,  to  the  end  of  the  farm,  and 

to  apply  the  money  arising  from  such  sale  as  hereinafter  directed. 
I  give  to  my  friends  Walter  Morton,  of  the  New  York  Phoenix  In- 
surance Company,  and  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  Counsellor  at  Law, 
late  of  Ireland,  two  hundred  dollars  each,  and  one  hundred  dollars 
to  Mrs.  Palmer,  widow  of  Elihu  Palmer,  late  of  New  York,  to  be 
paid  out  of  the  money  arising  from  said  sale ;  and  I  give  the  re- 
mainder of  the  money  arising  from  that  sale,  one  half  thereof  to 
Clio  Rickman,  of  High  or  Upper  INIary-le-Bone  Street,  London, 
and  the  other  half  to  Nicholas  Bonneville,  of  Paris,  husband  of 
Margaret  B.  Bonneville,  aforesaid :  and  as  to  the  south  part  of  the 
said  farm,  containing  upwards  of  one  hundred  acres,  in  trust  to  lent 
out  the  same,  or  otherwise  put  it  to  profit,  as  shall  be  found  most 
adviseable,  and  to  pay  the  rents  and  profits  thereof  to  the  said  Mar- 
garet B.  Bonneville,  in  trust  for  her  children,  Benjamin  Bonneville, 
and  Thomas  Bonneville,  their  education  and  maintenance,  until 
they  come  to  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  in  order  that  she  may 
bring  them  well  up,  give  then»  good  and  useful  learning,  and  instruct 
them  in  their  duty  to  God,  and  the  practice  of  morality,  the  rent  of 
the  land,  or  the  interest  of  the  money  for  which  it  may  be  sold,  as 
hereinafter  mentioned,  to  be  employed  in  their  education.  And 
after  the  youngest  of  the  said  children  shall  have  arrived  at  the  age 
of  twenty-one  years,  in  further  trust  to  convey  the  same  to  the  said 
children,  share  and  share  alike,  in  fee  simple.  But  if  it  shall  be 
thought  advisable  by  my  executors  and  executrix,  or  the  survivors 
of  them,  at  any  time  before  the  youngest  of  the  said  children  shall 
come  of  age,  to  sell  and  dispose  of  the  said  south  side  of  the  said 


WILL    OF    THOMAS    PAINE.  95 

farm,  in  that  case  I  hereby  authorize  and  empower  my  said  execu- 
tors to  sell  and  dispose  of  the  same,  and  I  direct  that  the  money 
arismg  from  such  sale  be  put  into  stock,  ehher  in  the  United  States 
Bank  stock,  or  New  York  Phoenix  Insurance  Company  stock,  the 
interest  or  dividends  thereof  to  be  applied  as  is  already  directed  for 
the  education  and  niamtenance  of  the  said  children,  and  the  princi- 
pal to  be  transferred  to  the  said  children,  or  the  survivor  of  them, 
on  his  or  their  coming  of  age.  I  know  not  if  the  society  of  people, 
called  Quakers,  admit  a  person  to  be  buried  in  their  burying  ground, 
who  does  not  belong  to  their  society,  but  if  they  do,  or  will  admit 
me,  I  would  prefer  being  bur;ed  there ;  my  father  belonged  to  that 
profession,  and  I  was  partly  brought  up  in  it.  But  if  it  is  not  con- 
sistent with  their  rules  to  do  this,  I  desire  to  be  buried  on  my  own 
farm  at  New  Rochelle.  The  place  where  I  am  to  be  buried,  to  be  a 
square  of  twelve  feet,  to  be  enclosed  with  rows  of  trees,  and  a  stone 
or  post  and  rail  fence,  with  a  headstone  with  my  name  and  age  en- 
graved upon  it,  author  oi  Common  Sense.  I  nominate,  constitute, 
and  appoint  Walter  Morton,  of  the  New  York  Phoenix  Insurance 
Company,  and  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  Counsellor  at  Law,  late 
of  Ireland,  and  Margaret  B.  Bonneville,  executors  and  executrix 
to  this  my  last  Will  and  Testament,  requesting  the  said  Walter 
Morton  and  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  that  they  will  give  what  assist- 
ance they  conveniently  can  to  Mrs.  Bonneville,  and  see  that  the 
children  be  well  brought  up.  Thus  placing  confidence  in  their 
friendship,  I  herewith  take  my  final  leave  of  them  and  of  the  world. 
I  have  lived  an  honest  and  useful  life  to  mankind;  my  time  has 
been  spent  in  doing  good,  and  I  die  in  perfect  composure  and  re- 
signation to  the  will  of  my  Creator,  God.  Dated  the  eighteenth 
day  of  January,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  nine ; 
and  I  have  also  signed  my  name  to  the  other  sheet  of  this  Will,  in 
testimony  of  its  being  a  part  thereof. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 

Signed,  sealed,  published,  and  declared  by  the  testator,  in  our 
presence,  who,  at  his  request,  and  in  the  presence  of  each  other, 
have  set  our  names  as  witnesses  thereto,  the  words  "  published  and 
declared"  first  inter.med. 

Wm.  KEESE, 
JAMES  ANGEVINE, 
CORNELIUS  RYDER. 


EPITAPH  FOE  THE  TOMB  OF 
THOMAS  PAINE. 

WRITTEN     BY    A     FKIEND. 


Here  moulders  in  this  dusk  abode, 
One  who  to  faith  no  homage  show'd: 
By  moral  law  his  life  he  tried, 
While  social  duty  was  his  guide. 
And  pure  philanthropy  the  end 
Of  all  he  did  or  could  intend. 

Prayer  he  pronounced  impiety. 
Vain  prompter  of  divine  decree  : 
That  oft  implores,  with  erring  zeal. 
For  boons  subversive  of  its  weal ; 
Yet  he  retained  a  grateful  sense, 
Of  bountiful  Omnipotence; 
Nor  blushed  with  reverence  to  own, 
That  blessings  spring  from  God  alone. 

Thus  unappallM,  he  sunk  to  rest, 
To  rise  or  lie  as  heaven  thought  best : 
Yet  future  hope  he  did  not  wave. 
Nor  mercy  for  transgressions  crave. 
The  God  who  gave  him  life  will  save.* 

*  Thomas  Paine  was  born  at  Thctford,  in  England,  on  the  29th  day  of 
January,  1737,  and  died  at  New  York,  on  the  8th  of  June,  1809,  aged  a 
little  over  seventy-two  years  and  four  months. 


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U  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED  | 

LOAN  DEPT. 

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